LIBRARY 

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eological    Seminar 

PRINCETON,    N.    J. 

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THE 


LITERARY  ATTRACTIONS 


THE    BIBLE; 


A   PLEA   FOR  THE   WORD   OF   GOD,  CONSIDERED 
AS  A  CLASSIC. 


LE  ROY  J.  HALSEY,  D.D. 


Thy  testimonies  are  wonderful. 

Psalmist. 


THIRD     EDITION. 

2TEW  YORK: 

CHARLES     SCRIBNER 

1859. 


Emti*kd  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1858,  by 

CHARLES    SCRIBNER, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States,  for  the  Southern  District  of  New  iTork. 


,  TINHON,  steheotyhbu.  b.  csaiqhead,  printsk. 


PREFACE. 


The  toi3ics  presented  in  the  several  chapters  of  this 
vohune,  though  apparently  disconnected,  have  all  been 
^selected  and  discussed  with  one  great  end  constantly  in 
view ;  and  that  is  to  make  them  bear,  as  an  unbroken 
and  cumulative  argument,  on  the  superhuman  and  con- 
sequently Divine  character  of  the  Bible.  This  is  the 
thought  that  underlies  the  whole  arrangement  and  gives 
it  unitv.  Tliis  main  desio^n,  thouojh  runnino^  throu2:h  a 
wide  range  of  iUustration,  will  be  found  constantly  re- 
curring, especially  at  the  end  of  the  chapters,  and  most 
of  all  in  the  last  chapter,  which  was  first  in  the  order  of 
conception  and  led  to  the  composition  of  all  the  rest. 

In  contemplating  the  adorable  person  of  Immanuel, 
there  is  a  human  as  well  as  a  Divine  side  to  the  picture. 
So  also  is  it  with  the  book  of  God.  It  has  a  human  iU'd 
a  Divine  side.  There  is  a  highei',  and  there  is  a  lower 
point  of  view.  It  is  the  aim  of  the  present  work  to  oc- 
cupy only  this  lower  place,  and  from  it  to  contemplate 
the  human  side  exclusively.  But  it  has  been  with  an 
impression  ever  present  to  the  writer's  mind  and  grow- 
ing to  the  end,  that  it  is  impossible  to  look  long  even 


VI  PREFACE. 

upon  the  human,  without  seeing  the  bright  beams  of 
the  Divine,  streaming  through  from  the  other  side.  Like 
the  manhood  in  Immanuel's  person,  humanity  here  ap- 
pears in  a  mood  so  original,  and  so  far  above  the  usual 
style  of  man,  that  it  seems  itself  a  demonstration  of 
Divinity. 

Of  course  nothing  new  can  now  be  offered  or 
attempted  on  such  a  theme.  But  it  is  hoped  that 
the  easy  argument,  if  the  w^riter  niay  venture  to  call 
it  such,  which  runs  through  these  chapters,  will  at  least 
arrest  the  attention  of  some  who  might  be  repelled  by 
more  difficult,  and  formal  discussions  of  the  evidence  for 
the  Divine  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures.  Perhaps  the 
best  evidence,  after  all,  is  to  let  the  Bible  speak  for  itself. 
It  is  a  great  point  gained,  when  we  can  get  what  is  in 
the  Bible  fairly-  before  the  minds  of  men.  But  there  is 
more  in  it  than  many  tliink  ;  much  more  than  any  casual 
reader  is  ever  aware  of.  And  how  is  the  Bible  to  speak 
for  itself  to  tliose  who  will  not  patiently  read  it?  Other 
books  must  speak  for  it,  and  tell  what  it  contains. 

The  object  of  these  pages  is  to  tell,  at  least  in  paj't, 
what  it  contains  ;  to  gain  tlie  eye  of  those,  who,  under 
an  impression  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  Bible  but  re- 
ligion, really  do  not  know  how  much  there  is  in  it ;  to 
bring  out  to  their  view  some  of  its  many  treasures  ;  and 
to  present  them  in  such  a  way  that  they  shall  desire  to 
see  more;  and  so  be  attracted  to  the  book  itself.  And 
if,  from  this  lower  point  of  view,  and  from  this  human 
side,  the  i-eader  should  receive  any  favorable  impi-ession 
of  its  truth,  wliat  inight  he  not  expect   to  find,  should 


PREFACE.  Vll 

he  but  ascend  to  the  higher  and  holier  ground?     'What 
but  the  himiuous  strokes  of  God's  own  linger  1 

"  On  every  line. 
Marked  with  the  seals  of  high  Divinity 
On  every  leaf  bedewed  with  drops 
Of  love  Divine,  and  with  the  eternal  heraldry 
And  signature  of  God  Almighty  stamped 
From  first  to  last." 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  L 


GENERAL  CHARACTERISTICS   OF   THE  BIBLE   AS  A   CLASSICAL  BOOK. 

Introductory— The  Bible  as  a  Classic— The  Bible  adapted  to  Childhood— The  Bible  in 
the  School  and  College— The  Bible  in  our  English  version— The  Bible  in  the  four 
great  Classic  Tongues— The  Bible  as  related  to  the  State  and  its  Schools— The  Bible 
the  Palladium  of  American  Institutions — The  Bible  and  the  Church  of  Rome — Con- 
cluding remarks 18-67 


CHAPTER  II. 

POETRY   AND   THE   BARDS   OB    THE  BIBLE. 

Nature  and  Uses  of  Poetry  in  the  Bible — Difference  between  Hebrew  Prose  and  Poetry 
— Style  of  Hebrew  Poetry,  Parallelism — Spirit  of  Hebrew  Poetry— Departments  of 
Hebrew  Poetry— Influence  of  Hebrew  Poetry— "Writers  of  Poetry  in  the  Bible— The 
Seven  Greater  Bards — The  Argument  from  Poetry— Concluding  Remarks,    .     6S-117 

CHAPTER  III. 

ELOQUENCE  AND  ORATORY  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 

Elements  and  Characteristics  oi'  Eloquence — Illustrations  of  Eloquence — Earliest 
Example  of  Eloquence  in  the  Old  Testament— Judah  as  an  Orator — Aaron  as  an 
Orator— Other    Examples    from    the    Old    Testament— Eloquence    of   Hushai,    the 

Archite, 118-162 

Is 


X  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  ELOQUENT  ORATORS  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 

Examples  of  Perverted  Eloquence — Herod  and  TertuUus — Speech  of  Gamaliel — TheElo* 
quent  Apollos— Stephen's  Address  to  the  Council — Preaching  of  John  the  Baptist- 
Peter  as  an  Orator— Speech  of  James  before  the  Synod— The  Recorder  or  Town- 
clerk  of  Ephesus— The  Eloquence  of  Paul— Paul  on  Mars  Hill— Discourses  of  our 
Lord— Conclusion, 153-201 

CHAPTER  V. 

TTPES  OF  FEMALE   CHARACTER   IN  THE  BIBLE. 

Interest  of  the  Subject — General  View — Classification — Picture  of  Eve — Sarah  and 
Rebekah — Character  of  Deborah— Character  of  Esther  and  Ruth — Jezebel  and  Atha- 
liah— Herodias  and  her  dancing  Daughter — Abigail,  Hannah,  and  Martha — Thp  Ma- 
rys—Concluding Remarks, 202-259 


CHAPTER  vr. 

REPRESENTATIVE   TOUNQ   MEN   OP  THE  BIBLB. 

Range  and  Limits  of  the  Theme— The  First  of  Young  Men— The  First  Two  Brothers- 
Character  of  Joseph — The  Youth  of  Moses— Sketch  of  David  and  Jonathan— Sketch 
of  Samuel  and  Saul — Saul  and  Samuel  at  Endor— Character  of  Absalom— The  Young 
Man  as  Sovereign— The  Young  Men  of  the  Captivity — Young  Men  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament,          260-323 


CHAPTER  Vn. 

UCIENCE  AND  THE  SAGES   OF  THE   BIBLS. 

Relations  and  Bearings  of  the  Subject— The  Moral  Science  of  the  Bible— The  Bible  on 
Physical  Science— First  Scientific  Characteristic— Second  Characteristic— Third 
Characteristic— AdditionallUustrations— Thy  Sages  of  the  Bible  .         .         .     824-S70 


CONTENTS.  XI 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

O&tQINAL  CONCEPTIOXS  ;   OR,   OBJECTS   OF   SUBLIMITY   AND   BEAUTY   IK   THE   BIBLB. 

The  Divine  Existence— The  Providence  of  God— The  Personal  Character  of  Christ— 
The  Idea  of  Special  Divine  Influence — The  Church  of  God— The   Common  Brother- 
hood of  Man— The  Day  of  Sacred  Rest— The  Millennium— The  Resurrection  of  the 
Dead— The  Last  Judgment — The  Heavenly  "World— The  Scheme  of  Redemption-^ 
Recapitulation  and  Coaclusion, 371-441 


ATTRACTIONS  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


CHAPTER  I 


GENER.IL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  BIBLE  AS  A 

CLASSICAL  BOOK. 

Inti-oductory — The  Bible  as  a  Classic — The  Bible  adapted  to  Childhood— The  Bible  in 
the  School  and  College — The  Bible  in  our  English  version — The  Bible  in  the  four 
great  Classic  Tongues — The  Bible  as  related  to  the  State  and  its  Schools — The  Bible 
the  Palladium  of  American  Institutions — The  Bible  and  the  Church  of  Rome — Con- 
cluding remarks. 

I. INTRODUCTORY. 

In  the  following  pages,  addressed  mainly,  though  not  excla- 
sively,  to  our  educated  youth,  it  is  proposed  to  present  an  outline 
of  what  may  be  called  the  Incidental  xittractions  of  the  Bible  ; 
or,  in  other  words,  to  set  forth  its  claims  both  as  a  classic,  and 
as  a  book  of  general  education.  As  a  book  of  religion,  around 
which  cluster  all  our  hopes  of  immortality,  the  Bible  has  merits 
of  the  very  highest  order  ;  and  these,  with  every  serious  mind, 
will  be,  as  they  ever  ought  to  be,  its  greatest  attractions.  But, 
aside  from  the  religion  which  it  reveals  to  us,  and  the  good 
news  of  salvation  which  it  brings  us,  the  Bible  has  other  attrac- 
tions. 

18 


14  GENERAL   CHARACTEKISTI08 

It  is  the  book  of  our  learning,  not  less  than  our  religion  ;  the 
basis  of  our  civilization,  not  less  than  our  salvation.  It  is  the 
charter  of  our  rights  and  liberties,  as  truly  as  it  is  the  oracle 
of  our  faith,  the  manual  of  our  devotions,  and  the  anchor  of 
our  hopes.  It  has  moulded  into  shape,  and  it  has  quickened 
into  life,  the  whole  body  of  our  secular  learning,  as  well  as  our 
tJHology.  It  has  breathed  its  own  vital  spirit  into  all  our 
science,  literature,  legislation,  philosophy,  social  and  political 
institutions.  It  has  led  the  van  of  ancient  and  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion in  its  march  around  the  globe.  It  has  been  the  great 
well-spring  of  liviag  water,  out  of  which  have  issued  all  the 
glad  streams  of  intellectual  and  moral  health,  that  are  now 
found  flowing  in  every  civilized  land  beneath  the  sun.  Thus 
far,  it  has  been  the  great  educator  and  civilizer  of  man  ;  and  it 
is,  doubtless,  destined  to  be  his  greatest  educator  in  all  time  to 
come,  his  most  effective  civilizer  in  every  dark  abode  of  heathen- 
ism throughout  the  world. 

But,  whilst  it  is  chiefly  as  a  book  of  religion,  and  especially 
of  religious  education,  that  the  Bible  has  spread  civilization 
among  the  nations  ;  still  it  is  true,  that  regarded  simply  as  a 
book  of  learning,  of  taste  and  genius,  of  history  and  eloquence, 
it  has  exerted  an  influence  which  cannot  be  too  highly  esti- 
mated. As  such,  it  has  claims  which  commend  themselves  to 
every  cultivated  understanding.  Independently  of  all  its  higher 
glories — the  knowledge  which  it  gives  us  of  the  way  to 
heaven,  and  the  hope  with  which  it  inspires  us  of  a  blessed 
immortality — there  are  attractions  which  may  be  felt  and 
appreciated  even  by  the  irreligious  and  the  worldly-minded. 
And  these,  it  is  our  purpose  to  group  together  in  one  distinct 
and  connected  view. 

Our  object  will  be  to  speak  of  the  book  of  God,  as  a  pro- 


OF    THE    BIBLE.  15 

duction  of  inspired  genius  and  classic  taste  ;  to  illustrate  the 
sublimity  of  its  thoughts,  the  beauty  of  its  diction,  the  wide 
compass  of  its  history,  the  vast  variety  of  its  biography,  and 
the  infinite  range  of  its  imagination  ;  to  reveal  something  of  its 
immeasurable  wealth,  as  a  field  of  knowledge,  a  mine  of  wis* 
dom,  a  model  of  eloquence,  a  master-piece  of  poesy,  a  fountain 
of  influence,  a  text-book  of  instruction  ;  and  thus  to  render  ^, 
Bo  far  as  we  shall  be  able,  attractive  to  all,  especially  to  the 
young.  In  other  words,  we  propose  to  walk  around  about 
Jerusalem,  to  mark  well  her  bulwarks,  to  admire  her  beauty,  to 
gaze  upon  the  outer  glories  of  her  temple. 

As  ancient  Israel  was  the  glory  of  all  the  earth,  Jerusalem 
the  glory  of  Israel,  and  her  temple  the  glory  of  Jerusalem,  even 
so  is  the  Bible  now  to  Christianity,  and  to  the  world.  It  is  the 
most  glorious,  outward,  and  visible  heritage,  which  has  come 
down  from  the  past.  It  stands  to  the  Christian  and  to  the 
Church,  as  the  temple  did  to  the  Jew.  It  is  the  throne  of 
power.  It  is  the  symbol  of  all  greatness.  It  is  the  shrine  of 
all  good.  It  is  the  centre  of  universal  attraction.  It  is  the 
radiating  point  of  all  blessed  influences.  It  contains  all  the 
holy  records.  Within  it  are  found  the  patterns  of  things  in  the 
heavens — the  Ark,  the  Testimony,  the  Mercy-Seat,  the  Manna 
and  the  Budding  Kod,  the  Cherubim  shadowing  with  wings, 
and  the  Shekinah. 

Biit  it  is  not  to  gaze  upon  any  of  these  glories  of  the  inner 
sanctuary  that  we  are  now  come.  It  is  to  stand  before  the 
beautiful  gate  of  this  mount  of  vision  ;  to  look  around  upon 
all  the  wonderful  adornments  of  this  hill  of  the  Lord, 
the  gold,  the  silver,  the  marble  and  the  precious  stones,  with 
that  kind  of  enthusiasm  which  the  traveller  feels  upon  the 
Athenian   Acropohs,    or   the    Roman   Capitoline.     The   Bible 


16  GKNERAL    CHAEACTEKISTICS 

is  our  mount  of  vision,  and  its  outstanding  beauties  now  attract 
our  view. 

It  is  thought  that  these  characteristics  of  the  Bible  may  be 
illustrated  by  a  comparison  with  other  books,  by  a  reference  to 
passing  events,  by  a  description  of  ancient  scenes  in  our  current 
phraseology  ;  that  they  may  be  presented  in  a  somewhat  mo- 
dern popular  dress,  which,  while  it  shall  not  offend  the  taste  of 
tWe  scholar  on  the  one  hand,  nor  the  piety  of  the  Christian  on 
the  other,  may  attract  the  attention  of  our  educated  youth  ; 
and  thus  become  the  means  of  leading  them  to  a  better  acquain- 
tance with  this  Divine  book.  At  all  events,  such  is  our  hope. 
For  in  these  days  of  fiction,  when  the  world  is  so  easily  turned 
upside  down  by  every  new  writer  of  tales  ;  when  history  phi- 
losophy, and  even  theology,  stoop  to  the  writing  of  a  two-volum- 
ed  novel  as  their  best  achievement  ;  when  there  are  so  many 
books,  leading  our  youth  away  from  the  Bible,  and  creating  a 
distaste  for  its  sacred,  truth-loving  pages — whatever  may  be 
said,  be  it  ever  so  little,  to  create  a  better  taste,  and  lead  them 
back  to  this  book  of  books,  will  be  so  much  gained  for  the 
cause  of  sound  learning  amongst  us. 

There  are  many  persons  who  will  read  a  page  or  chapter, 
attracted  by  the  sight  of  some  well-known  historical  name,  or 
some  familiar  line  of  poetry,  who  v/ould  otherwise  pass  it  by 
unread.  In  like  manner,  may  we  not  hope,  that  some  of  our  young 
friends,  allured  by  a  chance  illustration  from  history,  or  allusion 
to  current  events,  or  comparison  of  the  sacred  and  profane 
writers,  or  favorite  quotation  from  the  poets,  or,  it  may  be,  mere 
suggestion  that  there  is  more  science  in  this  venerable  book 
than  they  had  ever  given  it  credit  for,  will  be  led  thus  to  peruse 
it  for  themselves  ;  to  peruse  it  with  growing  interest,  until, 
advancing  from  the  less  to  the  greater,  and  from  the  outer   to 


OF    THE    BIBLE.  1^ 

the  inner  sanctuaiy,  they  find  for  themselves  that  other  attrac- 
tion, which  is  its  chief  glory — even  a  Saviour  who  is  God  over 
all  blessed  forever.     Such,  at  least,  is  our  desire. 

In  every  generation,  prejudice  has  put  the  same  question  re- 
specting this  book,  which  was  asked  respecting  the  Master  him- 
self at  the  beginning  :  "  Can  there  any  good  thing  come  out  of 
Nazareth  ?"  And  to  every  sincere,  though  prejudiced  Nathaniel, 
we  cannot  do  better  than  to  answer  in  the  words  of  Nathaniel's 
friend  :  "  Come  and  see."  If  you  will  come  and  see,  if  you 
will  read  and  examine  the  book  for  yourselves,  our  office  shall 
be  to  act  as  an  humble  guide,  who,  having  gone  over  the 
ground  before,  would  tell  what  scenes  of  beauty  and  sublim- 
ity, and  more  than  earthly  glory,  we  have  found  in  this  rich 
land.  We  will  act  the  part  of  Philip,  and  show  to  you  what 
others  have  shown  to  ns. 

Still  further,  it  shall  be  our  aim  to  avoid  everything  of  a  con- 
troversial and  sectarian  character.  AYe  wish  to  speak  as  a 
friend  of  the  Bible  ;  and  as  such,  to  address  all  to  whom  the 
Bible  is  addressed.  Nothing  gives  us  a  more  heart-felt  pleasure, 
than  to  come  out,  as  often  as  we  can,  from  the  inclosures  of 
denominational  peculiarities,  and  stand  in  the  wide,  open  field 
of  our  common  Christianity.  In  exhibiting  the  attractions  of 
the  book  of  God,  we  rejoice  that  it  is  our  privilege  to  speak  in 
such  a  way,  that  all  the  friends  of  evangelical  truth  may  feel  at 
home  with  us,  saying  :  This,  too,  is  our  book,  this  is  our  heri- 
tage forever,  the  lamp  of  our  feet,  the  guide  of  our  youth.  We 
may  all  look  upon  the  Bible  as  we  look  upon  the  broad  domain 
of  nature,  or  upon  the  blue  heavens  above.  It  is  common  pro- 
perty. It  is  all  ours.  It  all  belongs  to  each  of  us,  because 
our  Father  made  it.  We  breathe  a  common  air  ;  we  gaze  upon 
the  same  loveliness  ;  the  same  landscape  smiles  in  beauty  at  our 


18  GEN-ERAL    CHARACTERISTICS 

feet  ;  the  same  heavens  encompass  us  ;  in  the  Bible,  as  in  the 
book  of  nature,  we  are  all  at  home,  for  God,  our  Father,  is  over 
all,  and  in  all.  When  we  read  other  books,  there  is  a  limit  to 
our  view — a  narrow  boundary,  a  low  circumscribed  horizon, 
which  we  must  not  pass.  But  when  we  open  the  Bible,  it  is 
with  a  feeling  that  a  world  is  all  before  us,  the  skies  are  all 
bright  and  the  land  is  all  free. 

"  No  pent  up  Utica  contracts  our  powers, 
But  the  whole  boundless  continent  is  ours." 

It  is  With  this  enlarged  spirit  of  HberaUtj,  and  of  Christian 
brotherhood,  fostered  by  the  book  which  we  advocate,  that  we 
now  undertake  to  adress  as  many  of  our  fellow-Christians  and 
fellow-citizens — the  parents,  teachers,  and  youth  of  this  genera- 
tion— as  may  do  us  the  favor  to  read  these  pages. 


II. ^THE    BIBLE    AS    A   CLASSIC. 

It  is  greatly  to  be  desired  that  our  children  and  youth  should 
grow  up  v/ith  the  conviction  firmly  fixed  in  their  minds,  that 
the  Bible  is  a  classic  of  the  very  highest  authority  in  all  mat- 
ters of  education,  taste,  and  genius  ;  that  it  holds  the  same 
place  of  preeminence  in  the  republic  of  letters  which  it  holds 
in  the  Church  of  God.  It  is  exceedingly  important,  that  the 
public  mind  should  be  made  to  understand  what  the  most  emi- 
nent scholars  of  all  ages  and  all  lands  have  always  understood 
and  confessed — that  there  is  no  book  in  the  world  which  can 
stand  before  the  Bible  as  a  classic.  Such  an  impression,  early 
implanted  and  generally  received,  would  do  much  to  save  our 
young  people  from  the  evils  of  that  flimsy,  superficial  literature, 
which,  in  the  form  of  the  wild,  extravagant  romance,  the  love* 


OF   THE    BIBLE.  10 

sick  novel,  and  the  run-mad  poem,  is  coming  in  upon  us  like  a 
flood.  Jt  would  do  much  to  rescue  the  rising  generation  from 
that  deluge  of  fiction,  which  now  threatens  to  overlay  the  learn- 
ing of  this  boasted  nineteenth  century  with  a  deeper  detritus 
of  trash  than  that  of  all  the  geological  epochs. 

Now,  the  Bible,  regarded  as  a  model  of  classical  taste,  is  the 
great  antidote  and  corrective  for  this  evil.  We  must  teach  our 
youth  to  look  upon  it,  not  only  as  a  book  for-the  Sabbath  and 
the  Sanctuary,  but  as  a  book  for  the  family,  the  school,  and  the 
college.  We  must  set  it  before  them  as  worthy  of  the  most 
honored  place,  alike  in  the  cottages  of  the  poor,  the  palaces  of 
the  rich,  and  the  hbraries  of  the  learned.  We  must  not  let 
them  forget,  that  it  is,  at  once,  the  most  ancient,  the  most  sub- 
lime, the  most  wonderful  of  all  the  classics.  We  do  not  discard 
Homer  and  Virgil  from  the  classics  because  they  contain  a  reli- 
gion, even  an  absurd,  fabulous  religion  ;  why,  then,  should  we 
underrate,  or  disparage  the  classical  claims  of  the  Bible,  because 
it  contains  a  religion,  and  that,  the  only  true  religion  ?  Does 
the  Bible  cease  to  be  a  classic,  because,  in  addition  to  the 
inspiratioQ  of  human  genius,  it  has  the  higher  inspiration  of 
God  ?  Does  its  learning  cease  to  be  learning,  its  eloquence  to 
be  eloquent,  because  it  is  sanctified  and  animated  by  the  breath 
of  Divinity  ?  No  ;  the  Bible  is  as  truly  a  classic  as  Homer  or 
Virgil,  Xenophon  or  Cicero,  Milton  or  Addison.  It  fills  a  place 
in  ancient  and  modern  literature,  which  no  Greek  or  Roman 
author  ever  filled,  or  can  fill.  It  has  done,  for  the  literature  of 
all  civilized  nations,  what  no  Greek  or  Roman  book  could  ever 
have  done. 

As  a  Hebrew  book,  for  more  than  fifteen  centuries,  it  com- 
prised almost  the  entire  literature  and  learning  of  a  whole  nation. 
As  a  Hebrew  book,  it  exerted  an  influence  which  no  other  book. 


20  GKNERAL    CHARACTEEISTIC8 

not  even  the  Koran  of  Mohammed,  has  ever  attained  over  any 
people.  And,  notwithstanding  all  the  vicissitudes  of  states  and 
empires,  the  removal  and  extinction  of  nations,  it  has  never  lost 
its  original  supremacy.  It  acquired  the  same  place  of  power 
over  the  conquering,  classical  Greeks  and  Romans,  which  it  had 
held  so  long  over  the  Jews.  It  then  did,  successively,  for  the 
conquering  barbarians  of  Northern  Europe,  what  it  had  done 
for  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  A  classic  to  the  Hebrews,  it  be- 
came a  classic  in  the  languages  of  Demosthenes  and  Cicero  ; 
and  it  has  become  classical  in  the  vernacular  tongue  of  every 
European  nation.  And  that  w^hich  it  has  done  for  these,  it  is 
now  doing  in  every  pagan  nation  on  earth  to  which  the  Pro- 
testant missionary  has  been  sent. 

It  is  not  too  much,  then,  to  claim  for  the  Bible,  that,  as  a 
classic,  it  stands  without  a  rival  at  the  head  of  all  human  litera- 
ture. It  is  not  too  much  to  say,  that  it  has  eventually  con- 
trolled and  impregnated,  with  its  own  immortal  spirit,  the 
literature  of  every  people,  into  whose  vernacular  it  has  been 
translated.  And  at  this  moment,  there  is  not,  perhaps,  in  the 
whole  world  of  letters,  a  more  important  and  effective  work 
going  forward,  than  that  work  of  translation,  which,  under  the 
silent  but  sublime  labors  of  the  missionary,  is  making  the  Bible 
a  classic  book  in  every  human  tongue.  There  has  been  no  such 
transmigration  from  land  to  land,  and  from  language  to  lan- 
guage, of  the  Koran,  or  the  Shaster,  or  any  other  book  claiming 
to  be  a  Divine  revelation.  The  Bible,  therefore,  whether  we 
read  it  in  its  original  tongues,  in  its  manifold  ancient  and 
modern  versions,  or  in  our  own  admirable  English  translation, 
bears  upon  its  face  the  very  aspect  of  majesty,  of  high  classical 
antiquity,  of  inherent  undisputed  superiority.  Translate  it, 
however  badly,  dilute  it,  however  much  with  paraphrases  ;  still 


OF    THE  BIULE.  21 

it  is  almost  impossible  to  hide  the  native  beauty  of  its  imagery, 
or  the  original  lustre  of  its  thoughts.  They  will  still  break  out, 
like  sunshine  through  the  clouds,  or  spring-buds  from  the  cells 
in  which  winter  had  bound  them. 

There  is  a  richness  of  conception,  a  universality  in  its  spirit, 
a  range  and  amplitude  of  thought,  a  power  of  illustration,  a 
truthfulness  to  nature,  an  insight  into  character,  a  familiarity 
with  the  unseen  and  eternal,  a  fund  of  information,  a  variety  of 
incident,  and  a  consciousness  of  authority  in  all  its  utterances, 
which  give  to  all  the  words  and  images  of  the  Bible,  the  charm 
of  originality,  the  impress  of  genius,  and  the  force  of  an  endless 
life.  No  book  ever  did  speak,  or  can  speak  to  the  heart  of  the 
individual  man,  and  to  the  great  heart  of  the  world,  as  the 
Bible  has  done.  It  alone  has  a  voice  which  can  reach  all  the 
depths  of  the  human  spirit,  and  awake  the  slumbering  intellect 
from  the  stupor  of  ages.  It  alone,  of  religious  books,  has  a 
largeness  of  view  which  makes  it  congenial  to  humanity  every- 
where ;  classical  and  indigenous  on  every  soil,  in  every  *ra, 
beneath  the  stars  of  every  firmament.  It  is  as  much  at  home 
with  man  amid  the  splendid  capitals  of  Europe,  the  snows  of 
Greenland,  the  islands  of  the  South  Seas,  and  the  wild  woods 
of  America,  as  it  was  in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem,  or  the  hill 
country  of  Judea.  You  feel,  at  once,  on  reading  it,  and  you 
can  never  cease  to  feel  while  you  read,  that,  if  it  is  anything, 
it  is  everything  ;  it  bears  its  own  credentials  j  it  carries  a  self- 
evidencing  power,  not  only  of  religious  truth,  but  of  classic 
beauty.  It  is  true  to  nature  and  true  to  man  ;  it  describes  to 
the  life,  the  world  within,  and  the  world  without.  It  speaks  of 
that  which  we  know  already,  so  truly,  and  with  such  graphic 
power,  as  to  impress  us  with  the  conviction  of  the  truth  of  every- 
thing else  which  it  tells  us,  about  things  which  we  did  not  know 


22  GENERAL    CHAKACTERISTICS 

Moreover,  everything  in  it,  and  about  it,  is  on  a  scale  of 
magnificence  and  grandeur.  Everything  bears  the  stamp  of  a 
more  than  regal,  more  than  mortal  greatness.  Everything  is 
in  accordance  with  the  character  of  its  infinite  author  ;  every- 
thing is  represented  as  it  stands  related  to  him  ;  so  that  what 
is  insignificant  in  itself  becomes  great  from  its  connection  with 
the  Deity.  And  no  mind  can  come  fully  under  its  influence,  for 
any  length  of  time,  without  partaking  somewhat  of  its  own 
intellectual  and  moral  greatness.  Does  a  man  seek  for  great 
thoughts,  fitted  to  enlarge  the  intellect  ?  Here  are  thoughts  as 
vast  as  the  universe  of  matter  or  mind.  Does  he  crave  burning 
words  ?  Here  are  words  that  glow  with  the  fires  of  immortal- 
ity. Does  he  love  poetry,  and  ask  for  images  of  beauty  ?  Here 
are  angelic  harmonies,  and  forms  radiant  with  all  the  tints  of 
earth  and  heaven.  Does  he  love  to  read  the  records  of  the 
great  ?  Here  are  the  most  wonderful  characters  in  history — 
characters  that  lived  a  thousand  years — characters,  "  without 
beginning  of  days  or  end  of  years." 

Now,  let  any  child  read  this  book  in  the  nursery  and  in  the 
school,  and  then  read  it  on  through  life  ;  let  the  poor  laborer 
study  it  nightly  after  his  daily  toil  ;  let  the  humblest  cottager  in 
the  land  make  it  the  companion  of  his  thoughts  from  the  cradle 
to  the  grave  ;  let  the  young  man  make  it  the  guide  of  his 
youth,  and  the  old  man  the  companion  of  his  declining  years  ; 
and  it  is  as  if  he  had  been  associated  with  the  most  ex- 
alted scenes  and  characters  in  the  universe  ;  it  is  as  if  you  had 
taken  him  out  from  his  humble  dwelling,  and  sent  him  to  school 
to  patriarchs,  prophets,  and  apostles  ;  it  is,  as  if  you  had  given 
him  converse  and  familiar  fellowship  with  kings  and  nobles  of 
the  earth,  and  with  the  angels  of  God  ;  it  is  as  if  he  had  been 
caught  up  to  that  third  heaven  of  unutterable  things,  where,  in 


OF   THE    BIBLE.  23 

the  yisions  of  God,  he  might  learn  the  true  dimensions  of  man 
Let  any  man  of  ordinary  intelligence  be  thoroughly  initiated 
into  the  great  things  of  this  book,  and  it  shall  be  the  best  pos- 
sible guaranty,  that  his  estimate  of  all  other  things  will  be  cor- 
rect ;  to  borrow  the  phraseology  of  Chalmers,  he  can  never  more 
forget  the  relative  proportion  of  two  magnitudes — the  littleness 
of  time,  the  greatness  of  eternity. 

The  constant  reading  of  this  book  cannot  fail  to  form  a  true 
taste,  because  it  cannot  fail  to  inspire  a  love  of  truth  and 
beauty — a  real  heart-felt  appreciation  of  the  sublime  and  beau- 
tiful both  in  nature  and  art.  And  this  taste,  if  early  formed, 
becomes  an  effectual  safe-guard  against  all  false,  meretricious  writ- 
ings. If  you  educate  your  child  so  as  to  give  him  an  early  fond- 
ness for  such  models  of  poetic  art  as  the  Iliad  or  Paradise  Lost, 
there  is  not  much  danger  that  he  will  acquire  a  relish  for  trash 
and  bombast.  Even  so  it  is  with  a  mind,  early  imbued  with 
admiration  for  the  Bible  as  a  model  of  classic  beauty.  In  cor- 
recting the  judgment  and  elevating  the  taste,  a  constant  study 
of  the  Bible  has  much  of  the  same  effect  on  the  mind,  as  that 
which  would  be  produced  by  an  observation  of  the  works  of 
nature  and  art  in  all  lands.  It  is,  as  if  one  had  become  a  uni- 
yersal  traveller — had  seen  man  in  all  his  moods,  nature  in  all 
her  aspects,  grandeur  in  its  most  stately  steppings,  and  beauty 
in  her  loveliest  charms.  Yes,  of  all  books,  the  Bible  is  the  truest 
Cosmos.  And  of  all  students,  the  Bible  student  is  the  most 
thorough  cosmopolite.  Its  variety  is  endless.  Its  scenes  and 
characters  are  diversified  and  infinite,  like  the  universe. 

In  illustration  of  this  boundless  variety  of  subjects  contained 
in  the  Bible,  the  following  words  of  Mrs.  Ellis,  at  once  compre- 
hensive and  glowing  with  the  poetry  of  real  life,  may  be  cited  : 
"  From  the  woi  m  that  grovels  in  the  dust  beneath  our  feet,  to 


24  GENEEA.L    CHARACTERISTICS 

the  Leviathan  in  the  foaming  deep  ;  from  the  moth  that  corrupts 
the  secret  treasure,  to  the  eagle  that  soars  above  his  eyrie  in 
the  clouds  ;  from  the  ass  in  the  desert,  to  the  lamb  within  the 
shepherd's  fold  ;  from  the  consuming  locust,  to  the  cattle  upon 
a  thousand  hills  ;  from  the  rose  of  Sharon,  to  the  cedar  of  Leb- 
anon ;  from  the  crystal  stream  gushing  forth  out  of  the  flinty 
rock,  to  the  wide  waters  of  the  deluge  ;  from  the  lonely  path 
of  the  wanderer,  to  the  gathering  of  a  mighty  multitude  ;  from 
the  tear  that  falls  in  secret,  to  the  din  of  battle  and  the  shout 
of  a  triumphant  host  ;  from  the  mourner  clad  in  sackcloth,  to 
the  prince  in  purple  robes  ;  from  the  gnawings  of  the  worm 
that  dieth  not,  to  the  seraphic  visions  of  the  blest  ;  from  the  still 
voice  of  conscience,  to  the  thunders  of  Omnipotence  ;  from  the 
depths  of  hell,  to  the  regions  of  eternal  glory  ;  there  is  no  degree 
of  beauty  or  deformity,  no*  tendency  to  good  or  evil,  no  shade  of 
darkness  or  gleam  of  light  which  does  not  come  within  the  cog- 
nizance of  the  Holy  Scriptures  ;  and  therefore,  there  is  no  ex- 
pression or  conception  of  the  mind  that  may  not  find  a  corres- 
ponding picture  ;  no  thirst  for  excellence  that  may  not  meet 
with  its  full  supply,  and  no  condition  of  humanity  necessarily 
excluded  from  the  unlimited  scope  of  adaption  and  sympathy 
comprehended  in  the  language  and  spirit  of  the  Bible." 

Are  we  not  then  authorized  in  saying  of  the  Bible,  that  be- 
sides all  its  other  uses,  it  is  entitled  to  the  place  of  preeminence 
amongst  books,  as  being  the  great  treasure-house  of  thought 
and  the  great  model  of  classic  beauty — the  most  wonderful 
and  perfect  work  of  taste  and  genius  which  has  ever  appeared 
amongst  men  ?  Call  it  what  you  will,  a  Divine  revelation,  or 
a  human  production — an  inspiration  from  God,  or  an  inspira- 
tion of  genius  ;  still  it  must  be  admitted  to  be  the  most  remark- 
able book  in  the  world,  and  to  exhibit  the  most  remarkable 


OF    THE    BIBLE.  ^5 

achievement,  that  has  ever  been  made  by  man,  or  for  man,  in 
bis  advance  towards  perfection.  On  this  point,  however,  we  find 
an  ample  solution.  We  hold  it  to  be  the  greatest  of  classics, 
because  it  is  inspired  of  God — the  most  perfect  work  of  the 
human  mind,  because  a  mind  more  than  human  is  everywhere  at 
work  in  it.     "  Thy  testimonies  are  wonderful." 


III. ^THE    BIBLE  ADAPTED   TO    CHILDHOOD. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark,  and  it  should  be  to  all  parents  an  in- 
structive fact,  that  there  is  a  sort  of  development  and  progress 
in  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  corresponding  to  the  development  and 
progress  of  human  life.  The  world  has  had  its  periods  of  infancy, 
childhood,  and  youth,  prior  to  full  maturity.  Every  individual 
of  our  race  has  the  same  corresponding  periods.  And,  answer- 
ing to  these,  the  Bible  history  may  be  said  to  have  its  several 
periods  of  infancy,  childhood,  and  youth.  The  New  Testament, 
with  its  sublime  Gospel  history,  its  profound  doctrinal  Epistles, 
and  its  mysterious  prophetic  Apocalypse,  is  but  the  finishing  of 
that  intellectual  and  moral  manhood,  which  is  supposed  to  have 
had  its  early  education  in  the  preparatory  school  of  the  Old 
Testament, 

The  composition  of  the  different  books  of  Scripture  extended 
through  fifteen  centuries.  The  Bible,  in  the  order  of  its  forma- 
tion, seems  to  be  exactly  adapted  to  life  in  the  order  of  its  ad- 
vancement. And  if  so,  it  would  appear  reasonable,  that  every 
individual  should  follow  that  order  in  the  study  of  it,  which  its 
great  author  adopted  in  giving  it  to  the  world.  In  order  then, 
that  a  man  may  be  able  fully  to  understand  and  appreciate  the 
New  Testament,  he  must  have   read  the   Old  ;  and  not  only 

2 


26  GENERAL    CHARACTEKISTICS 

have  read  it,  but,  what  is  the  all  important  and  instructive  fact, 
he  must  have  read  it  in  his  youth — known  it  like  Timothy  from 
his  very  childhood.  If  he  has  failed  to  read  it  at  that  period 
of  life,  for  which  God  seems  to  have  expressly  designed  it,  he 
has  lost  an  advantage  which  it  is  almost  impossible  ever  to  re- 
gain. He  has  lost,  indeed,  what  no  subsequent  reading  or 
knowledge  of  it  can  ever  give  him — the  impressions  of  childhood, 
all  those  peculiarly  vivid  and  ineffaceable  impressions  which  the 
Bible  never  fails  to  make  upon  every  child  who  reads  it  aright. 
And  there  is  scarcely  anything  which  we  receive  in  childhood, 
which  a  man  might  not  better  afford  to  lose.  With  no  remem- 
brances of  the  Bible,  coming  up  fresh  from  the  fountains  of  his 
childhood,  in  all  his  subsequent  reading,  he  finds  himself  in  the 
condition  of  an  old  man  with  an  uncultivated  memory,  sitting 
down  to  the  task  of  learning  a  new  language.  If  we  would 
acquire  the  knowledge  of  new  languages  with  facility,  we  must 
do  it  in  early  life  ;  we  must,  at  least,  lay  a  foundation  for  it, 
by  studying  the  grammar  in  childhood  and  youth.  In  an  im- 
portant sense,  the  Old  Testament  history  is  the  grammar,  by 
which  we  must  learn  the  language  of  the  whole  Bible.  There 
are  some  books  which  we  are  all  accustomed  to  read  in  our 
childhood,  if  we  ever  read  them  at  all.  They  have  not  much 
attraction  for  us,  unless  we  read  them  as  children  ;  and  then, 
they  never  lose  their  charm.  We  can  read  them  with  fresh 
interest  even  down  to  old  age  ;  just  because,  having  first  read 
them  at  the  proper  season,  we  live  over  again  in  each  perusal 
all  the  impressions  of  our  childhood  and  youth. 

Even  so  it  is  with  the  Bible,  especially  with  those  narrative 
portiims  of  the  Old  Testament,  which  no  child  can  read  with- 
out wonder  and  delight,  and  which  none  that  reads  can  ever 
forget.     Every  return  to  them  in  subsequent  Ufe,  will  be  like 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  27 

going  back  to  the  home  of  our  childhood  after  years  of  absence, 
to  renew  our  youthful  sports  and  pleasures  in  that  quiet  valley, 
or  on  that  river's  bauk,  or  beneath  that  humble  roof,  where 
first  we  saw  the  light.  Indeed,  we  have  no  hesitation  in  say- 
ing, that  the  best  possible  preparation  for  a  full  understanding 
and  appreciation  of  the  Scriptures,  in  the  years  of  our  maturity, 
is,  that  like  Timothy  we  should  have  known  them  from  our 
childhood. 

Have  you  never  observed  with  what  difficulty  an  old  man, 
unacquainted  with  the  Bible  in  his  youth,  is  induced  to  read  the 
Old  Testament  regularly  through  ?  Have  you  ever  seen  the 
experiment  of  a  first  reading,  made  by  one  who  has  long 
cherished  skeptical  opinions  ?  Take  a  man  of  strong  common 
sense,  well-educated  as  to  other  books,  but  ignorant  of  the 
Bible,  and  induce  him,  if  you  can,  to  read  it  for  the  first  time. 
Suppose  him  unacquainted  even  with  the  New  Testament  ;  and 
now,  at  your  request,  he  sits  down  to  the  task  of  reading  the 
Old  Testament  regularly  from  the  beginning.  What  is  the  re- 
sult ?  In  all  probability,  before  he  reaches  the  end  of  Genesis, 
he  will  close  the  book  in  utter  incredulity  and  disgust.  He 
cannot  understand  it.  He  sees  no  beauty  in  it.  He  abandons 
the  task  in  despair.  No  ;  that  will  not  do  for  him.  With  him 
you  must  try  a  different  method.  He  has  been  too  long  min- 
gling as  an  actor,  in  the  daily  affairs  of  our  present  busy 
world,  to  be  placed  back  so  far,  and  so  suddenly,  into  that 
wonderful  world  of  the  past.  Had  he  been  a  boy  of  twelve  or 
sixteen  years,  he  would  have  read  on,  allured  and  absorbed  by 
those  stupendous  scenes  which  have  so  repelled  and  disgusted 
him  as  a  man.  The  very  things  which  so  offend  him  as  a 
rationalist  and  an  infidel,  would  have  charmed  him  most  as  a 
child. 


28 


GENERAL   CH  A.RACTERISTIC8 


But  with  him  now  you  must  reverse  the  process,  if  you  would 
attract  him  by  the  Bible.  You  must  give  him  the  New  Testa 
ment  first  ;  and,  with  that,  let  him  work  his  way  back  to  the 
simple  faith  of  childhood.  Let  him  first  read  the  New  Testa- 
tament,  which  is  maiuly  addressed  to  the  logical  reason  and 
the  moral  sense  of  man,  at  his  maturity  ;  and  then,  converted 
and  become  as  it  were  a  little  child  again,  and  keeping  ever  in 
his  hand  the  New  Testament  as  a  lamp  to  his  feet,  he  will, 
perhaps,  have  faith  enough  in  history,  and  confidence  enough 
in  God,  to  thread  his  way  through  all  the  wonders  of  the  Old — 
to  see  beauty,  glory,  and  divinity  in  all  that  ancient,  oriental, 
Bible  history,  which  recounts  the  youth  of  nature,  the  childhood 
of  the  world,  and  the  infancy  of  all  created  things.  Still,  there 
may  be  some  things,  even  then,  hard  to  be  understood,  which 
will  be  to  him  a  stumbling-block  as  long  as  he  lives  ;  and  that 
for  no  other  cause-  than  this — that  his  parents  neglected  the 
ordinance  of  God,  which,  old  as  the  days  of  Moses,  required 
tliera  to  teach  all  these  things  to  their  child,  while  he  was  a 
child. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  truth  of  these  remarks,  you  may 
observe,  that  when  our  foreign  missionaries  carry  the  gospel  to 
the  adult  population  of  heathen  lands,  it  is  the  New  Testament 
which  they  first  translate,  and  put  into  the  hands  of  the  people. 
And  then,  by  degrees,  as  they  become  somewhat  acquainted 
with  the  New  Testament  Scriptures,  portions  of  the  Old  are 
translated.  But  as  soon  as  schools  are  established,  and  the 
native  children  and  youth  collected  for  instruction,  the  whole 
Bible  from  the  beginning,  with  all  its  wonderful  events,  is  set 
before  them  in  that  same  order  of  nature  by  which  God  has 
adapted  it  to  the  opening  minds  of  every  land  and  of  every 
generation. 


OF    THE    BIBLE.  29 

It  is  true  that  the  young  mind  is  interested  in  reading  the 
New  Testament  as  well  as  the  Old  ;  for  this  has  its  wonderful 
things  as  well  as  that.  Indeed,  there  is  in  the  New  Testament, 
taken  separately,  the  same  gradual  advancement  from  the  sim- 
ple to  the  profound,  which  marks  the  Scriptures  throughout  as 
a  whole — first,  the  wonderful  personal  biography  of  Jesus,  then 
the  wider  history  of  the  Apostles,  next  the  profound  epistles, 
and  then  the  sublime  prophesies  of  the  Apocalypse  ;  each  pre- 
paring the  way  for  its  successor,  and  each  adapted  to  maturer 
years  and  a  larger  knowledge  in  the  reader.  You  -will  find, 
however,  that  the  mind  of  a  child  will  be  mostly  attracted  by 
precisely  those  parts  of  the  New  Testament — the  biographical 
and  historical,  which  contain  the  *'  signs  and  wonders,"  and  in 
which  it  resembles  the  Old  ;  such,  for  example,  as  the  appari- 
tion of  angels,  voices  from  heaven,  the  mighty  works  of  Jesus, 
the  incarnation,  crucifixion,  resurrection  and  ascension  of  the 
Son  of  God. 

Now,  if  there  be  truth  in  these  remarks,  you  see  at  once, 
what  an  important  place  the  Scriptures,  both  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  the  New,  hold  in  the  education  of  our  children.  As 
a  book  of  education,  no  part  of  the  Bible  has  become,  or  ever 
can  become  obsolete.  The  whole  Bible,  from  first  to  last,  is 
inspired  of  God  and  wisely  arranged,  so  as  to  meet  the  wants 
of  the  human  mind,  in  its  aspirations  after  knowledge  and 
happiness,  in  every  stage  of  its  development  from  infancy  to 
old  age.  And  this  is  more  than  can  be  claimed  for  any  other 
book  in  the  world. 

We  believe  the  study  of  the  Bible,  with  all  its  wonderful 
history  and  biography — its  kings  and  statesmen,  its  women  and 
children,  its  heroes  and  sages,  its  bards  and  prophets,  its  patri- 
archs and  apostles,  its  orators  and  jurists — to  be  just  as  needful 


30  GENERAL    CHAKAOTERISTICS 

now,  in  the  education  of  our  youth,  as  it  ever  was  in  any  former 
period.  We  believe  the  Bible  to  be  a  complete  and  perfect 
text-book  of  instruction.  We  hold  it  to  be,  not  only  the  best 
book  which  has  ever  existed,  but  for  all  purposes  of  education,  the 
best  which  could  have  been  made  out  of  such  materials  as  this 
world's  history  has  thus  far  aJ3forded.  We  have  no  idea,  that 
any  man  or  set  of  men,  however  wise  and  learned,  could  now 
frame,  out  of  all  the  existing  materials  in  the  world  outside  of 
the  Bible,  any  book  which  could  be  compared  with  this,  in  its 
admirable  adaptation,  as  a  book  of  education,  to  the  youth  of 
all  generations  and  all  lands,  and  which,  at  the  same  time, 
should  be  none  the  less  adapted  to  all  other  periods  of  human 
life.  No  such  collectanea  could  be  formed  out  of  all  that 
remains  of  the  classical  learning  of  Greece  and  Eome.  The 
literature  of  all  modern  times,  excepting  that  which  has  been 
modelled  after  the  Bible,  could  not  furnish  such  a  compend  of 
universal  instruction.  This,  indeed,  is  one  among  the  many 
wondrous  characteristics  of  the  Bible — its  vast  combination  of 
different  elements,  its  amazing  comprehensiveness,  adapting  it 
to  each  class  and  each  individual  in  particular,  and  to  all 
alike. 

We  grant  you,  there  are  portions  of  it  which  no  child  can 
understand  ;  which  no  man,  no  philosopher,  can  fully  under- 
stand. There  are  many  things  in  it  which  we  see,  as  through 
a  glass,  darkly  ;  which  we  must  be  content  to  know  only  in 
part  ;  just  as  there  are  many  barren  rocks,  and  trackless  desert 
wastes,  and  vast  ice-fields  on  the  earth's  surface,  whose  utility 
we  cannot  perceive,  and  which  a  modern  philosopher  would 
probably  have  left  out,  had  he  been  consulted  in  the  making  of 
a  world.  There  is  just  as  little  reason  to  think,  that  human 
philosophy  would  have  made  the  world  as  it  is,  or  have  governed 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  31 

it  as  it  is  governed,  as  that  it  would  hare  made  just  such  a 
Bible  as  God  has  given  us.  In  either  case,  his  ways  are  not  as 
our  ways.  But  is  it  any  impeachment  of  the  Divine  wisdom,  or 
proof  that  the  world  was  not  made  by  God,  that  we  find  in  it  a 
Scylla  and  Charybdis,  a  Cape  Hatteras,  a  frozen  ocean,  or  a 
Sahara  desert  ?  No  more  is  it  an  argument  against  the  Divine 
origin  or  excellence  of  the  Scriptures,  that  they  contain  whole 
chapters  of  genealogy,  and  ceremonial  laws,  and  unknown  pro- 
phecies, which  we  may  not  be  able  to  bring  within  the  compass 
of  our  views  of  utility.  If  there  are  things  in  the  Bible  hard 
to  be  understood,  deep  things  of  God  which  have  not  yet  given 
up  their  secrets  to  any  human  explorer  ;  things  that,  from  the 
first,  were  intended  for  the  reading  of  future  ages  ;  let  us  not 
forget  that  the  same  is  true  of  universal  nature  ;  "  there  are 
more  things  in  heaven  and  earth  than  are  known  to  our  phi- 
losophy." Let  us  bear  in  mind  that  a  time  is  coming,  when  we 
shall  see,  eye  to  eye,  and  face  to  face  ;  shall  know  even  as  we  are 
known.  A  future  day  shall  bring  to  light  what  is  now  hidden 
from  our  vision  ;  and  if  not  the  day  of  this  life,  at  any  rate  tho 
night  of  death.  For  both,  in  material  and  in  spiritual  things, 
it  stands  true,  that  "  darkness  shows  us  worlds  of  light  we 
never  saw  by  day."  We  may  rest  assured  that  a  Bible  without 
mysteries,  and  a  world  without  wonders,  would  be  no  improve- 
ment of  either,  as  it  regards  the  great  purpose  for  which  they 
were  intended.  Our  modern  rationalist  would  strike  out  all 
that  is  miraculous  in  the  Bible.  He  would  reject,  as  fabulous, 
all  the  accounts  of  a  world  created  out  of  nothing,  the  origin 
and  unity  of  our  race,  the  temptation  and  fall  of  Adam,  the 
longevity  of  the"  patriarchs,  the  Ark  and  Deluge  of  Xoah,  the 
tower  of  Babel,  the  destruction  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  the 
plagues  of  Egypt,  the  passage  of  the  Red  Sea,  the  pillar  of 


33  GENEEAL   OHARACTERTSltwS 

cloud  and  fire,  the  trumpets  of  Sinai,  the  waters  of  the  smitten 
rock,  the  burning  bush,  the  manna  of  the  wilderness,  the  cross- 
ing of  Jordan,  the  falling  of  the  walls  of  Jericho,  the  stopping 
of  the  sun,  the  vision  of  angels,  the  fire  from  heaven,  the  raising 
of  the  dead,  the  fiery  furnace,  and  the  den  of  lions  at  Babylon, 
the  fish  of  Jonah,  the  translation  of  Enoch,  the  ascension  of 
Elijah,  the  transfiguration  and  all  the  stupendous  miracles  of 
Christ.  But,  without  these,  what  would  the  Bible  be,  more 
than  any  other  book,  to  childhood  and  youth  ?  Did  God  make 
the  Bible,  any  more  than  he  did  this  wondrous  world  before  us, 
only  for  the  accommodation  of  a  few  rationalists  and  infidel 
philosophers  I  If  all  the  infidels,  who  have  ever  lived, 
had  believed  in  it,  their  whole  number  would  be  but  as  a 
drop  in  the  bucket,  compared  with  the  millions  upon  millions, 
who  have  believed  in  it  as  it  is,  without  their  aid,  and  despite 
their  opposition.  In  fact,  it  is  by  these  very  things,  that  the 
Bible  is  so  admirably  adapted  to  the  young.  It  is  by  the 
attraction  of  these  Divine  wonders,  that  it  has  gained  and  held 
its  mastery  over  the  children  and  the  adult  population  of  every 
civilized  country  in  the  world.  Truly,  "  Thy  testimonies  are 
wonderful." 


IV. — THE    BIBLE    IN   THE    SCHOOL   AND    COLLEGE. 

From  all  that  has  been  said  in  favor  of  the  Bible,  as  a  classic, 
and  as  a  book  adapted  to  childhood  and  youth,  it  follows  as  a  legi- 
timate inference  of  great  practical  importance,  that  it  ought,  in- 
variably, to  form  a  part  of  the  regular  course  "of  instruction  in 
all  our  schools  and  colleges.  In  every  system  of  classical,  col- 
legiate education,  it  ought  to  be  studied  in  its  original  tongues, 


OF   THE    BIBLE.  J^3 

jtist  as  our  youth  study  the  Greek  and  Latin  authors.  We  sec 
no  reason  why,  as  models  of  beauty,  or  as  exercises  of  mental 
culture,  the  language  and  literature  of  Rome  or  of  Athens 
should  be  preferred  to  that  of  Jerusalem.  On  the  single  ground 
of  taste  and  genius,  we  believe  that  Moses  and  the  Prophets, 
in  their  venerable  Hebrew,  are  fully  equal  to  Homer  and  Virgil, 
Herodotus  and  Livy.  And,  accordingly,  an  acquaintance  with 
them  in  the  original,  ought  to  be  regarded  as  an  essential  part 
of  a  liberal,  accomplished,  collegiate  education. 

But  the  Bible  has  much  wider  claims  than  these.  Few  com- 
paratively, can  ever  study  it  in  its  original  tongues.  Every 
man,  every  child  at  school,  may  study  it  in  English.  And  it  is 
chiefly  as  an  English  classic,  the  best  and  most  important  in 
our  language,  that  we  advocate  its  claims.  No  school  ought  to 
be  found  without  the  Bible.  No  course  of  education  ought  to 
be  considered  complete  without  it.  No  individual  ought  to  be 
regarded  as  adequately  educated  without  a  knowledge  of  it. 
If  there  is  any  one  book  which  deserves  to  be  held  as  indispen- 
sable in  every  school,  and  in  every  course  of  education,  it  is  the 
Bible.  As  an  English  classic,  and  a  text-book  of  daily  instruc- 
tion, it  ought  to  hold  the  same  foremost  place  in  all  our  schools, 
which  we  know  a  part  of  it  did  hold  as  a  Hebrew  classic,  and 
that  by  Divine  commandment,  in  all  the  schools  of  the  Jews* 
for  thousands  of  years  ;  and  which,  indeed  it  does  still  hold 
amongst  the  remnants  of  the  chosen  people  throughout  the 
world. 

It  is  in  no  spirit  of  dogmatism,  that  we  set  up  this  claim  for 
the  Bible  as  a  book  of  education  at  school.  Argument  could 
be  given,  if  any  argument  were  needed,  except  the  bare  state- 
ment of  the  case.  Does  it  require  any  argument  to  show  that 
the  book,  which  has  caused  all  our  learning,  as  well  as  our  reli- 

2* 


34  GENERAL   CHARACTERISTICS 

gion,  to  differ  from  that  of  the  Mohammedans,  the  ancient  Pa- 
gans, and  the  modern  heathen  nations,  ought  to  be  read  in  our 
schools  ;  that  the  book  which  tells  us  all  we  know,  with  cer- 
tainty, about  God  and  a  future  state,  and  gives  us  the  highest 
sanctions  we  have,  for  our  morality,  our  laws,  our  institutions 
of  marriage,  the  family  and  the  state,  ought  to  be  read  and 
studied  at  school  ?  Surely,  if  argument  is  to  be  brought,  it 
would  require  much  argument  to  show  that  such  a  book  ought 
not  to  be  studied  there.  If  ancient  history  ought  to  be  studied 
at  school,  then  ought  the  Bible  to  be  studied,  as  containing  the 
most  ancient,  most  important,  and  most  interesting  history  in 
the  world.  If  the  lives  of  illustrious  men  ought  to  be  read, 
then  ought  this  book  to  be  read,  with  its  biography  of  ilhistri- 
ous  names,  extending  from  Adam  to  Jesus  Christ.  If  our  youth 
may  read  at  school  the  great  masters  of  eloquence  and  poesy, 
then  may  they  read  the  Bible  there,  as  containing  the  sublimest 
strains  of  the  one,  and  the  most  finished  specimens  of  the  other, 
which  our  race  has  ever  produced.  If  the  elements  of  all  mo- 
ral and  mental  science,  the  principles  of  virtue  and  political  wis- 
dom, may  be  taught  at  school,  then  may  the  Bible  be  taught, 
for  it  is  the  fountain  whence  all  these  have  flowed.  If  religion 
itself  ought  to  be  taught  at  school,  as  a  legitimate  part,  and  by 
far  the  most  important  part  of  all  education,  then  ought  the 
Bible  to  be  taught,  as  being  the  book  of  our  common  Christi- 
anity, the  only  true  and  Divine  revelation  in  the  world. 

But,  independently  of  this  last  consideration,  our  plea  for  the 
Bible  as  a  school-book  still  stands  good.  You  tell  us  you  do 
not  receive  the  Bible  as  the  book  of  your  religion  ;  or,  you  do 
not  wish  your  child  to  learn  Christianity  at  school  ;  or,  that 
this  is  a  part  of  instruction  which  you  reserve  for  yourself. 
V\"ell,  be  it  so.     Aud  what  then  ?     Our  claim  for  the  Bible  as 


OF  tup:  bible.  35 

a  school  book  is  still  untouched.  If  you  deny  the  inspiration 
of  God,  you  cannot  deny  the  inspirations  of  genius  which 
breathe  forth  on  every  page.  If  you  choose  to  ignore  all  its 
evidences  as  a  Divine  revelation,  you  cannot  ignore  its  history, 
and  biography,  and  morality,  and  learning,  its  eloquence  and 
poetry,  without,  at  the  same  time  forfeiting  your  own  claim  to 
be  a  man  of  taste,  capable  of  appreciating  the  sublime  and 
beautiful.  If  unwilling  to  have  the  religion  of  the  Bible  taught 
at  school,  what  objection  can  you  have  to  its  learning  and  mo- 
rality ?  You  cannot  wish  to  exclude  from  our  schools  the  most 
effective  and  beneficial  history,  biography,  literature,  and  phi- 
losophy, which  the  world  has  ever  produced. 

If  it  could  be  proved,  by  an  absolute  demonstration,  that  the 
religion  of  the  Bible  is  a  cunningly  devised  fable,  so  that  Christ- 
ianity should  henceforth  take  its  place  with  the  mythology  of 
Greece  and  Rome  as  an  exploded  system,  still  it  would  remain 
true  as  a  historical  fact,  and,  indeed  the  most  remarkable  fact 
on  that  assumption  in  the  world's  history,  that  this  book  has 
been  more  widely  known  and  received  by  the  nations  of  the 
the  earth,  has  exerted  a  more  beneficial  and  enduring  influence 
upon  them  than  any  other  book,  whether  of  facts  or  of  mytho- 
logies. And,  therefore,  both  for  what  it  contains  in  itself,  and 
for  what  it  has  done  in  the  world,  even  as  a  book  of  mythology, 
it  would  be  entitled  to  take  rank,  in  our  schools  and  colleges, 
above  Homer  or  Hesiod,  Virgil  or  Ovid.  True  or  false,  then,  in- 
spired or  uninspired,  Divine  or  human,  the  Bible  deserves  to  bG 
studied  at  school,  so  long  as  anything  is  studied  ;  so  long  as 
men  have  any  interest  in  knowing,  and  in  causing  their  children 
to  know,  what  has  been  said  and  done  in  this  world  of  ours  in 
past  ages.  Atid  we  must  be  permitted  here  to  say,  that  the 
child  in  this   Christian  land,  who   is  permitted  to  go  through 


36  GENERAL    CHARACTERISTICS 

all  the  elegant,  fashionable  schools  of  learning,  and  complete  his 
education  without  even  a  reading  of  the  Bible,  is  chargeable 
with  a  degree  of  ignorance,  which,  if  the  book  were  only  human, 
would  be  a  disgrace  to  him  ;  and  which,  if  it  be  Divine,  is  both 
a  disgrace  and  an  incalculable  injury. 


V. THE    BIBLE    IN    OUR    ENGLISH   VERSION. 

To  all  these  general  considerations  in  favor  of  the  Bible  as 
the  basis  of  education,  there  is  one  more  to  be  added  which 
ought  to  have  special  weight  with  every  individual  who  claims 
the  English  as  his  mother  tongue,  or  loves  to  read  that  tongue 
in  its  noblest  utterances  of  thought  and  feeling.  It  is  the  cir- 
cumstance, that  we  possess  a  translation  of  it,  which,  simply 
as  an  English  book,  is  as  classical  to  our  language  as  it  is  faith- 
ful and  true  to  the  original.  This  grand  old  English  Bible,  now 
crowned  with  the  honors  of  nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty  years, 
opened  evening  and  morning  to  kindle  the  devotions  of  the  mil- 
lions that  speak  our  tongue,  has  come  down  to  us  with  every 
quality  and  attribute  that  could  make  any  book  a  "  well  of  Eng- 
lish undefiled."  Two  centuries  and  a  half  of  profound  biblical 
study,  and  of  advancing  criticism  in  every  walk  of  science  and 
literature,  while  revealing  some  minor  inaccuracies  as  to  the  let- 
ter, have  brought  to  light  no  essential  defect  or  error  as  to  the 
spirit  and  tenor  of  this  wonderful  version  ;  on  the  contrary, 
they  have  but  served  to  exalt  it  the  more  in  the  eyes  of  the 
scholar,  the  more  to  enshrine  it  in  the  reverential  and  admiring 
affections  of  the  people. 

It  is  a  matter  of  the  very  highest  importance  to  Enghsh 
literature,  and  it  ought  to  be  a  cause  of  profound  gratitude  to 


OF   THE    BIBLE.  37 

God,  that  this  glorious  old  version  was  made  precisely  when  it 
was,  and  by  just  those  men  who  took  it  in  hand.  The  forty- 
seven  aged,  pious,  and  profoundly  learned  men,  who,  after  years 
of  united  labor,  under  the  direction,  but  not  dictation  of  King 
James,  published  this  version  in  1611,  only  completed  a  work 
which  had  been  going  on  for  centuries.  There  had  been  five 
preceding  translations  into  English,  all  of  which  had  prepared 
the  way  for  this  more  accurate  version  under  the  royal  author- 
ity. The  work  of  translation  had,  in  fact,  been  commenced  by 
John  Wickliffe,  the  morning  star  of  the  Reformation,  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  before  ;  and,  in  spite  of  all  opposition,  both 
in  England  and  on  the  continent,  it  had  gone  steadily  onward 
through  the  successive  versions  of  Tyndale,  Coverdale,  the 
Geneva  Bible,  and  that  of  the  Bishops,  until  it  reached  its 
memorable  consummation  in  the  present  translation.  The  learn- 
ed John  Selden,  who  was  a  contemporary  of  these  translators, 
remarks,  that  "  the  English  translation  of  the  Bible  is  the  best 
translation  in  the  world,  and  gives  the  sense  of  the  original 
best."  That  early  opinion  has  been  confirmed  by  the  almost 
unanimous  judgment  of  posterity  ;  and,  in  that  judgment,  the 
great  body  of  the  church,  wherever  the  English  tongue  is  spokeu, 
has  rested  without  desiring  any  further  change. 

Now,  the  glory  of  this  translation,  as  an  English  classic,  lies 
in  the  fact,  that  having  grown  with  the  growth  and  strengthened 
with  the  strength  of  our  mother  tongue,  it  reached  its  completion 
precisely  at  the  time  when  the  language  itself  had  attained  its 
noontide  of  excellence  and  vigor.  The  perfection  of  the  one 
was  co-existent  with  the  full  maturity  of  the  other  ;  precisely  as 
it  had  been  with  the  Greek  tongue  and  the  old  Septuagint. 
When  our  translation  was  made,  the  age  of  Addison,  with  its 
polish  and  graceful  diction,  had  not  come.     But  precisely  that 


38  GENERAL    CHAKACTERISTICS 

age  of  masculine  strength,  of  graphic  diction,  of  sublime  thought, 
of  terse  idiomatic  expression,  had  come,  which  best  prepared  our 
language  to  give  utterance  to  the  revelations  of  God.  No 
period  before  could  have  done  it  so  well  ;  and  certainly  none 
since.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  it  was  the  age  of  Lord  Bacon 
and  of  Shakspeare.  The  father  of  the  inductive  philosophy, 
and  the  greatest  name  in  the  annals  of  dramatic  literature,  were 
the  contemporaries  of  these  translators  of  the  Bible  ;  and  they 
were  soon  followed  by  Milton,  Locke,  and  Sir  Isaac  Newton. 
If  there  are  any  five  names  in  human  history,  capable  of  stamp- 
ing the  seal  of  immortality  upon  a  nation's  literature,  they  are 
the  five  great  classic  names  just  mentioned.  But  it  was  in  the 
very  midst  of  these  and  others  like  them,  some  going  before,  and 
some  coming  after — it  was  in  the  very  words,  and  idioms,  and 
images  of  power  and  beauty,  wherewith  they  clothed  their  own 
immortal  thoughts,  that  our  present  translation  of  the  Bible 
first  stood  forth  complete  before  the  world — at  once  a  product 
and  a  monument  of  the  scholarship  of  that  remarkable  age. 

It  was  certainly  a  most  signal  illustration  of  the  gracious, 
over-ruling  Providence  of  God,  that  the  time  should  be  so  auspi- 
cious, and  the  hands  so  competent  for  the  accomplishment  of  so 
great  a  work.  We  behold  here  a  fitness  of  things  precisely 
akin  to  that  which  existed  when  the  Greek  language  was  per- 
mitted to  attain  its  greatest  perfection  at  home,  in  the  hands  of 
Athenian  sages,  poets,  and  orators,  and  its  widest  dominion 
abroad,  through  the  conquests  of  Alexander  the  Great,  before 
it  became  a  recipient  of  the  Word  of  God  in  the  Septuagint 
translation.  Of  all  times  in  the  history  of  the  Greek  tongue 
that  was  the  best  for  such  a  translation.  But,  speaking  after 
the  manner  of  men,  we  scarcely  can  say  which  was  the  greater 
gainer,  the  Bible  or  the  English  language,  in  having  our  trans- 


/s 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  39 

lation  made  when  it  was.  Certainly  it  was  for  both,  the  fittest 
time  that  could  be  chosen  in  the  history  of  our  language.  It 
was  undoubtedly  an  admirable  thing  for  the  religion  of  the  Bible, 
that  this  robust  Anglo-Saxon  speech,  with  all  its  borrowed 
Wealth  from  other  tongues,  should  be  suffered  first  to  reach  its 
full  maturity  of  strength  and  beauty  under  the  guiding  hands  of 
such  masters  as  Spenser  and  Shakspeare,  Ben  Jonson  and  Sir 
Philip  Sidney  ;  and  then,  before  it  had  lost  one  jot  or  tittle  of 
its  glory,  should  be  so  incorporated  and  enshrined  in  the  living 
Word  of  God,  that  while  the  speech  lives  the  book  must  live, 
because  the  book  is  itself  the  noblest  utterance  of  the  speech. 
On  the  other  hand,  how  fortunate  for  the  language  itself,  and 
for  all  English  literature,  that  it  should  have  such  a  canoniza- 
tion in  the  Bible  and  such  a  book  in  which  to  be  canonized  ; 
that  the  noble,  majestic  dialect  in  which  Shakspeare  and  Bacon 
uttered  their  thoughts,  and  which  Milton,  Locke,  and  Xewton 
soon  after  learned  at  school,  has  been  perpetuated  and  immor. 
talized  by  being  fast-anchored  to  the  oracles  of  God  !  The 
benefit  has  thus  been  mutual  ;  and  it  is  immense.  By  means 
of  this  inimitable  translation,  the  terse  and  mighty  diction  ol 
the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  has  been  transmitted  to 
posterity,  and  is  at  this  hour  the  familiar  household  dialect  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  But  for  the  English  Bible,  who  can  tell 
us  how  much  of  this  diction  would  not  now  be  hopelessly  obso- 
lete ?  By  means  of  this  book — the  only  book  read  and  revered 
by  all  men — our  English  language  has  had  the  rare  good  for- 
tune to  daguerreotype  itself  at  the  highest  perfection,  and  to 
transmit  the  likeness  to  all  generations.  For  whilst  it  has  be  en, 
and  still  is,  endlessly  diversified  and  enriched  by  contributions 
from  without,  as  for  example  in  the  word  which  we  have  just 
nsod — a  word  derived  from  recent  art — still  the  grand  outlines, 


40  GENERAL    CHARACTERISTICS 

the  old  idioms,  the  ground-forms,  remain  unchanged  and  in^ 
violate.  By  this  book  they  are  placed  beyond  the  possibility 
of  deterioration  or  desuetude.  While  the  language  is  constantly 
gaining,  it  can  never  lose  anything  of  its  original  classic  power 
so  long  as  this  Bible  of  its  palmiest  days  is  read  by  the  people ; 
because  this  book  is  the  connecting  link  between  the  present 
and  the  past,  the  spoken  and  the  written  language. 

It  is  the  nature  and  the  imperfection  of  all  spoken  languages 
to  be  perpetually  changing.  The  new  is  ever  crowding  out  the 
old,  unless  there  be  some  influence  to  counteract  it.  The  words 
of  one  century  become  obsolete  in  another.  Mere  change  is  no 
improvement,  unless  while  we  gain  the  new  we  can  also  retain 
the  old.  But  this,  the  English  Bible  has  enabled  our  language 
to  do  in  a  remarkable  degree — to  hold  fast  the  old  while  grasp- 
ing the  new  treasure.  Like  Marshall  Ney  to  the  French  army, 
it  has  been  the  rear-guard  of  the  grand  army  of  Anglo-Saxon 
progress.  Without  retarding  its  march,  it  has  covered  the  rear 
^vith  glory,  and  prevented  loss  or  damage  there.  This  book, 
universally  read  as  it  is,  and  must  be,  by  a  Protestant  people, 
renders  it  impossible  that  words  thus  enshrined  in  the  daily 
thoughts  of  the  people  should  ever  grow  obsolete.  In  fact, 
very  few  have  ever  become  obsolete  ;  and  even  these  are  in 
portions  seldom  read.  With  these  rare  exceptions,  the  Scrip- 
tures of  this  authorized  version,  now,  after  the  lapse  of  two 
centuries  and  a  half,  are  as  intelligible  to  the  people  as  they 
were  at  the  beginning.  And  so  this  version  has  done  for  our 
language,  what  no  other  influence  under  heaven  could  have 
^cxie — it  has  been  an  ark  of  safety  which  has  borne  it  across 
the  wide  abyss  of  centuries,  and  is  still  bearing  it  gloriously 
adown  the  current  of  ages.  As  long  as  this  translation  stands 
in  its  integrity,  to  be  read  in  the  closets  and  around  the  family 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  41 

altars  of  the  English  race,  just  so  long  must  the  words  in  which 
Shakspeare  and  Milton  sang,  in  which  Bacon,  Locke,  and  New- 
ton expounded  the  laws  of  the  universe,  live  as  the  familiar 
spoken  words  of  the  people. 

Now,  in  these  days  of  fast  progress,  there  may  be  some  per- 
sons so  fond  of  novelty,  so  disposed  to  ignore  or  disparage  all 
the  greatness  of  the  past,  that  they  can  see  no  advantage  in 
having  our  classic  English  perpetuated  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration. But  we  are  not  of  that  number,  and  trust  the  reader 
of  these  pages  is  not.  There  are  some  things  in  the  world  which 
we  love  all  the  better  because  they  are  ancient.  Of  these,  reli- 
gion is  one.  Literature  is  another.  Like  old  and  tried  friends 
they  are  not  to  be  cast  aside  for  strangers  and  upstarts.  We 
would  have  our  children  grow  up  familiar  with  the  massive  old 
dialect  of  Milton,  rather  than  run  the  risk  of  getting  something 
worse  by  the  fancied  improvements  of  the  last  novel-writer  or 
the  morning  newspaper.  Would  it  not  be  a  glorious  thing  even 
for  young  Italy,  if  the  descendants  of  the  ancient  Eomans  had 
never  ceased  to  speak  the  dialect  of  Cicero  and  Caesar  ?  Would 
not  modern  Greece  be  a  more  glorious  land  to-day,  if  her  gene- 
rations had  preserved  inviolate  the  mother  tongue  of  Plato  and 
Demosthenes  ;  if  there  had  been  some  great  sacred  book  of  the 
people  to  bind  the  spoken  to  the  written  language  ?  In  our 
estimation,  among  the  manifold  advantages  flowing  from  this 
time-honored,  universally-read  English  Bible,  it  is  far  from  being 
the  least,  that  it  has  stood  as  an  impregnable  bulwark  for  the 
classic  purity  of  the  English  tongue,  resisting  all  the  encroach- 
ments of  needless  innovation  and  holding  it  to  its  ancient  land- 
marks, without  hindering  its  growth  or  improvement.  A  similiar 
influence  has  been  exerted  upon  the  German  language  by  the 
noble  Bible  of  Luther. 


42  GENERAL   CHARACTERISTICS 

Doubtless  the  greatest  of  all  advantages,  is  the  influence 
which  it  has  everywhere  and  unceasingly  exerted  in  favor  of 
the  high  interests  of  the  Protestant  religion.  This  influence 
has  been  incalculable  ;  and  it  is  increasing  every  day,  with  the 
growing  age  of  the  book  and  the  ever-widening  sphere  of  its 
circulation.  Dr.  Newman,  the  Papist,  though  intending  it  for  a 
difi'erent  purpose,  has  paid  a  just  tribute  to  the  power  and  ex- 
cellence of  our  version  in  the  following  profound  and  beautiful 
words  :  "  Who  shall  say,  that  the  uncommon  beauty  and  mar- 
vellous English  of  the  Protestant  Bible  is  not  one  of  the  strong- 
holds of  heresy  in  this  country  ?  It  lives  in  the  ear  like  a  music 
that  can  never  be  forgotten — like  the  sound  of  church-bells 
which  the  convert  hardly  knows  how  he  can  forego.  Its  felici- 
ties often  seem  to  be  almost  things  rather  than  words.  It  is 
part  of  the  national  mind,  and  the  anchor  of  the  national  seri- 
ousness. The  memory  of  the  dead  passes  into  it.  The  potent 
traditions  of  childhood  are  stereotyped  in  its  verses.  The 
power  of  all  the  griefs  and  trials  of  man  is  hidden  beneath  its 
words.  It  is  the  representative  of  his  best  moments  ;  and  all 
that  there  has  been  about  him  of  soft  and  gentle,  of  pure,  and 
penitent,  and  good,  speaks  to  him  forever  out  of  his  English 
Bible.  It  is  his  sacred  thing  which  doubt  has  never  dimmed, 
and  controversy  never  soiled.  In  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
land,  there  is  not  a  Protestant  with  one  spark  of  religiousness 
about  him,  whose  spiritual  biography  is  not  in  his  Saxon 
Bible." 

No  doubt  something  might  be  gained,  in  the  way  of  correct- 
ing small  inaccuracies,  by  a  new  version  of  the  Scriptures. 
But  infinitely  more  would  be  lost  by  destroying  that  prestige  of 
a  long  and  glorious  past  which  the  English  Bible  now  enjoys — hj 
breaking  that  peculiar  charm  both  to  the  ear  and  the  heart 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  43 

which  the  countless  millions  of  its  readers  have  all  felt  Tc 
break  up  all  these  hallowed  associations,  to  unsettle  the  public 
confidence  in  that  "  old  family  Bible  which  lies  on  the  stand/' 
to  substitute  some  new  and  modernized  Bible  in  its  stead,  cut 
and  fashioned  according  to  the  latest  style  of  criticism — all  this, 
if  it  could  be  done,  as  we  think  it  never  can,  and  hope  it  never 
may,  would  be  an  unmitigated  calamity  to  the  church  and 
the  world.  It  would  be  to  lose  all  that  is  precious  and  impres- 
sive in  the  fact,  that  the  sacred  book  of  the  people  is  the  great 
standard  classic  of  the  people's  literature.  It  would  be  to  in- 
cur all  that  is  evil  in  cutting  a  nation's  literature  loose  from  its 
ancient  moorings,  and  sending  it  adrift  upon  the  ocean  of  end- 
less change. 

On  this  point  we  respond  most  heartily  to  the  remarks  of  an 
eloquent  speaker.  Dr.  Storrs,  at  a  late  anniversary  of  the  Amer- 
ican Bible  Society.  " This  old  version,"  said  he,  "is  hallowed 
with  such  memories  as  scarcely  belong  to  another  human  work. 
It  stretches  back  one  of  its  far-reaching  roots  to  the  very  cell 
of  Bede.  It  strikes  down  another  beneath  the  burnt  ashes  of 
Wickliffe.  It  sends  another  under  the  funeral  pile  of  Tyndale. 
It  twists  another  around  the  stake  where  Cranmer  was  burned. 
Give  up  this  version  for  a  trim  and  varnished  new  one  ?  Nay 
verily  !  Those  broad  contorted  arms  have  wrestled  with  the 
fierce  winds  of  opinion  for  two  hundred  years  !  The  sweet 
birds  of  heaven  have  loved  to  come  and  sing  among  them  ;  and 
they  sing  there  still  !  Their  leaves  are  leaves  of  life  and  heal- 
ing !  There  is  not  a  text  pendent  upon  those  boughs  but  has 
the  stuff  of  religions  and  literatures  in  it  !  They  have  given  of 
their  ribbed  strength  to  every  enterprise  for  human  welfare  ! 
Give  up  this  version  ?  It  is  our  American  inheritance  !  It  came 
over  in    the  Mayflower  !      It  was  brought  by   Oglethorpe  to 


44:  GENERAL   CHARACTERISTICS 

Georgia  I  It  has  spread  across  our  land  I  It  has  been  the  joy 
of  generations  to  sit  under  its  shadow  !  It  will  stand  while  the 
hills  stand  !  We  will  not  give  up  this  oak  of  the  Ages,  for  any 
modern  tulip  tree  at  present  1" 

VI. THE    BIBLE    IN    THE    FOUR   GREAT    CLASSIC    TONGUES. 

It  is  interesting  to  trace  the  history  of  the  Word  of  God  in 
its  connection  with  the  leading  languages  of  civilized  man. 
First,  we  find  it,  or  the  earlier  part  of  it,  in  its  native  Hebrew, 
which  was  for  ages  the  advanced  guard  of  all  human  civilization. 
Next,  we  have  it — the  Old  Testament  nearly  three  centuries 
before  the  advent  of  Christ,  and  the  New  immediately  after — 
in  the  Greek  tongue,  which  was,  for  long  ages  more,  the  all-con- 
trolling language  of  classical  antiquity.  Then,  again,  from  the 
days  of  Jerome,  we  find  it  in  the  imperial  world-conquering 
Latin,  which  held  the  mastery  in  Europe  down  to  the  sixteenth 
century.  And  now,  since  the  Reformation,  which  left  it  in  the 
vernacular  of  all  the  great  civilized  nations  of  Protestant 
Europe,  we  have  it  above  all  others,  in  this  unparalleled  English, 
which,  to  say  the  least,  is  the  leading  language  of  modern 
Christendom  ;  which  is  doing  more  than  all  others  put  together 
to  spread  the  true  gospel  of  God,  and  with  it  civilization, 
among  the  tribes  and  peoples  of  the  heathen  world. 

There  have  been  four  great  languages,  which  have  succes- 
sively held  the  foremost  place  in  transmitting  and  diffusing  civi- 
lization over  the  globe — Hebrew,  Greek,  Latin,  and  English. 
And  it  is  one  of  the  grandest  facts  in  the  history  of  literature, 
that  the  Word  of  God  has  held  the  place  of  supremacy  in  each 
of  them,  as  its  sacred  canonical  book.     Assuredly,  no  other  reli- 


OF    THE    BIBLE.  45 

gious  book — no  book  whatever — has  ever  had  such  a  history. 
If  there  were  no  other  argument  for  the  book,  this  fact  would 
be  enough — that  at  the  head  of  these  four  languages,  it  has  led 
the  march  of  civilization  around  the  globe. 

Of  two  of  these  great  Bible-transmitting  languages,  the 
second  and  third,  we  have  seen  a  vivid  portraiture  by  Coleridge, 
in  the  following  terms  :  ''  Greek,  the  shrine  of  the  genius  of  the 
old  world  ;  as  universal  as  our  race,  as  individual  as  ourselves  ; 
of  infinite  flexibility,  of  indefatigable  strength,  with  the  com- 
plication and  the  distinctness  of  nature  herself ;  to  which 
nothing  was  vulgar,  from  which  nothing  was  excluded  ;  speak- 
ing to  the  oar  like  Italian,  speaking  to  the  mind  like  English  ; 
with  words  lil^e  pictures  ;  with  words  like  the  gossamer  film  of 
the  summer  ;  at  once  the  variety  and  picturesqueness  of  Ho- 
mer, the  gloom  and  the  intensity  of  ^schylus  ;  not  compressed 
to  the  closest  by  Thucydides,  not  fathomed  to  the  bottom  by 
Plato,  not  sounding  with  all  its  thunders,  nor  lit  up  with  all  its 
ardors,  even  under  the  Promethean  touch  of  Demosthenes  ! 
And  Latin,  the  voice  of  empire  and  of  war,  of  law  and  of 
the  state  ;  inferior  to  its  half-parent  and  rival  in  the  embody- 
ing of  passion  and  in  the  distinguishing  of  thought,  but  equal 
to  it  in  sustaining  the  measured  march  of  history,  and  superior 
to  it  in  the  indignant  declamation  of  moral  satire  ;  stamped 
with  the  mark  of  an  imperial  and  despotizing  republic  ;  rigid 
in  its  construction,  parsimonious  in  its  synonyms  ;  reluctantly 
yielding  to  the  flowery  yoke  of  Horace,  although  opening  glimp- 
ses of  Greek-like  splendor  in  the  occasional  inspirations  of 
Lucretius  ;  proved,  indeed,  to  the  uttermost  by  Cicero,  and  by 
him  found  wanting ;  yet  majestic  in  its  barrenness,  instinct  with 
the  spirit  of  nations,  and  not  with  the  passions  of  individuals  ; 
breathing  the  maxims  of  the  world,  and  not  the  tenets  of  the 


4:6  GENERAL    CHARACTEKI8TICS 

Bchools  ;  one  and  uniform  in  its  air  and  spirit,  whether  touched 
by  the  stern  and  haughty  Sallust,  by  the  open  and  discursive 
Livy,  by  the  reserved  and  thoughtful  Tacitus." 

If  we  might  adopt  a  similar  style  in  order  to  complete  the 
picture  of  the  four  great  languages,  which  have  in  turn  become 
the  depositaries  and  disseminators  of  the  Word  of  God,  we 
should  describe  the  first  of  all,  the  stately  and  giant-built  He- 
brew, as  the  most  simple,  the  most  symmetrical,  and  the  most 
ancient  of  written  tongues  ;  with  letters  like  blocks  of  granite, 
with  words  like  king's  palaces,  with  sentences  like  cities  walled 
up  to  heaven  ;  though  robed  in  the  beauties  of  holiness,  yet 
rugged  as  the  mountains  about  Jerusalem  ;  unchangeable  in  its 
idiom,  unyielding  in  its  structure,  unvarying  and  solemn  in  its 
tone,  from  generation  to  generation  the  language  of  truth  and 
judgment,  of  adoration  and  obedience  ;  spoken  first  in  the  gar- 
den of  Eden,  or  by  the  builders  of  Babel,  proclaimed  from  hea- 
ven at  Sinai,  and  written  on  tables  of  stone  by  the  finger  of 
Jehovah  ;  forever  preserving  its  awful  dignity,  whether  sung 
by  the  Seraphim  above,  or  by  the  choirs  of  the  temple,  whether 
carried  to  the  highest  heaven  of  sublimity  by  Isaiah,  or  brought 
down  to  play  amongst  the  roses  of  Sharon  and  the  lilies  of  the 
valley  by  Solomon  ;  yet  destitute  alike  of  the  elasticity  of  the 
Greek  and  the  martial  spirit  of  the  Latin,  unfitted  to  skirmish 
with  the  one,  or  charge  with  the  other,  but  ever  marching  with 
the  slow  and  measured  tread  of  an  ancient  army  of  elephants. 

If  such  be  the  Hebrew,  the  tongue  of  primeval  revelation, 
and  Greek,  the  tongue  of  unaided  genius,  and  Latin,  the 
tongue  of  conquest  and  empire — what  shall  we  say  of  this  last 
and  mightiest  stronghold  of  the  Bible — this  English  of  the  old 
world  and  the  new,  of  all  the  sciences,  and  all  the  arts,  and  all 
the  encyclopedias — this    English,  not  of  the  manuscript  and 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  47 

cloister,  but  of  the  printing  press,  the  telegraph,  the  steam-car, 
spreading  the  light  of  liberty  and  salvation  around  the  globe — 
this  English  of  commerce,  of  education,  of  colonization,  of  the 
Missionary,  the  Sunday  School  and  Bible  Society — this  univer- 
sal Anglo-American  speech,  whose  dominion  is  wider  and 
mightier  than  any  king  or  conqueror  could  ever  boast  I  Strong 
in  the  deep  foundations  of  those  old  Saxon  elements,  which 
underlie  it  as  the  mountain  granite  underlies  the  surface  of  the 
earth  ;  rich  in  the  accumulated  deposits  and  formations  de- 
rived from  the  influx  and  commingling  of  other  languages  ; 
quickened  into  life  and  beauty  by  the  constant  culture  of  more 
than  a  thousand  years  ;  breathing  everywhere  tlie  energy  and 
lofty  spirit  of  the  hardiest,  most  heroic  race  on  the  face  of  the 
earth  ;  combining,  all  in  one,  the  original  grandeur  of  the  He- 
brew, the  gracefulness  of  the  Greek,  and  the  martial  might  of 
the  Roman  tongue  ;  with  matchless  ease  incorporating  into  it- 
self images  of  beauty  and  subhmity  from  every  monument  of 
ancient  art,  from  every  production  of  modern  genius,  from  every 
discovery  of  science  in  the  earih,  the  air,  the  seas  and  skies — • 
now  in  prose,  and  now  in  poetry,  adjusting  itself  to  the  imper- 
sonation and  the  utterance  of  every  passion  and  every  concep- 
tion of  man — now  bursting  forth  in  stern  and  awful  rebuke  from 
the  lips  of  Cromwell  and  the  men  of  the  Commonwealth,  and 
now  singing  Hosannas  to  the  pomp  and  circumstance  of  royalty 
in  the  writers  of  the  Restoration — now,  in  the  thunder-tones  of 
reformers  and  martyrs,  denouncing  the  wrath  of  God  agiiinst 
an  ungodly  world,  and  now,  in  strains  as  sweet  as  angels  use, 
whispering  the  gospel  of  peace  to  the  hearers  of  Leighton  and 
Flavel,  Wesley  and  Whitfield,  Cecil  and  Newton — now  soaring 
on  adventurous  wing  with  the  bard  of  Paradise  Lost  to  the  very 
throne  of  Deity,  and  now  with  the  Pilgrim  of  Bunyan  treading 


48  GENERAL   CHARACTERISTICS 

the  narrow,  weary  way  to  the  celestial  city — now  revealing  to 
the  bard  of  Avon  all  the  depths  of  human  passion,  or  painting 
with  colors  dipped  in  heaven  every  stone,  and  tree,  and  shrub, 
and  llower,  of  this  lower  world — now  like  some  broad  and  glori- 
ous river,  flowing  grandly  through  the  pages  of  Addison  and  John- 
son, Hume  and  Gibbon,  Burke  and  Macaulay,  and  now  rushing 
on  with  resistless  might  through  those  of  Chatham  and  Fox,  and 
Junius — now  rising  with  grace  and  grandeur  to  the  high  themes 
of  Taylor  and  Tillotson,  Baxter  and  Owen,  Howe  and  Edwards, 
Chalmers  and  Eobert  Hall,  and  now  sparkling  in  all  the 
exuberant  wit  of  South  and  Swift,  Sterne  and  Sidney  Smith — 
now  flaming  out  in  the  eflfective  satire  of  Butler  or  Defoe,  of 
Pope  or  Byron,  and  now  breathing  soft  music  through  the  mel- 
lifluous verse  of  Dryden,  Thomson,  and  Goldsmith^now  touch- 
ing the  finest  chords  of  human  sympathy  and  brotherhood  in 
the  peculiar  dialect  of  Robert  Burns,  and  now  glowing  more 
beautiful  than  the  tints  upon  a  maiden's  cheek  in  all  the  wonder- 
ful creations  of  Walter  Scott — now  condescending  wdth  Cowper 
and  Wordsworth  to  hold  familiar  converse  with  the  lowliest 
living  thing,  and  now  transcending  both  the  majesty  of  Cicero 
and  the  fire  of  Demosthenes  in  Sheridan  and  Erskine,  Grat- 
tan  and  Canning,  Patrick  Henry  and  Daniel  Webster — all, 
and  in  all  from  first  to  last,  this  grand  old  English  is  the  lead- 
ing language  of  Christendom,  and  is  destined,  ere  long,  as  it 
makes  the  circuit  of  the  earth,  with  our  Anglo-American  race 
and  our  Protestant  Bible,  to  become  the  classic  tongue  of 
every  heathen  nation  precisely  as  the  Greek  and  Latin  did 
to  the  nations  of  Europe.     This  is  its  manifest  destiny. 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  4S 


Til. THE  BIBLE  AS  RELATED  TO    THE  STATE  AND  ITS  SCHOOLS. 

In  order  to  give  to  this  prelimiuary  discussion  a  practical 
bearing,  it  will  not  be  out  of  place  to  notice  here  an  important 
subject,  which,  in  many  parts  of  our  country,  has  of  late  deeply 
interested  the  public  mind  ;  we  mean  the  connection  of  the 
Bible  with  the  common  or  public  schools. 

We  are  clear  in  the  conviction,  that  as  the  Bible  ought  to 
be  made  the  basis  of  all  education  in  childhood  and  youth,  so 
the  Bible,  in  some  form  or  other,  ought  to  be  used  in  all  schools, 
whether  private  or  public.  If  it  is  right  and  proper  to  make 
the  Bible  a  book  of  education  for  any  children,  or  in  any  school 
whatever,  it  would  be  hard  to  show  why  children  should  be 
deprived  of  its  benefits  by  the  mere  circumstance  of  being 
taught  in  a  public  school.  There  is,  in  fact,  no  logic  by  which 
such  a  difference  can  be  maintained.  Still  further,  if  any  Bible 
is  to  be  used  in  such  a  school,  this  inimitable  English  Bible  is 
entitled  to  that  distinction.  It  is  of  this  our  distinguished 
American  orator,  Fisher  Ames,  said  :  ''  Should  not  the  Bible 
regain  the  place  it  once  held  as  a  school-book  ?  Its  morals 
are  pure,  its  examples  captivating  and  noble  ;  and  in  no  other 
book  is  there  so  good  English,  so  pjire  and  so  elegant."  Of 
this,  the  learned  Adam  Clark  said  :  "  Our  translators  have  not 
only  made  a  standard  translation,  but  they  have  made  their 
translation  the  standard  of  our  language."  As  such,  no  school, 
no  process  or  system  of  education,  can  be  complete  without 
it. 

It  is  manifest  that  the  use  of  the  Bible,  as  a  book  of  educa- 
tion in  these  schools,  is  the  thing  which  has  caused  such  an 
array  of  opposition  against  the  common  school  system  in  cer- 

3 


50  GENERAL    CHARACTERISTICS 

tain  quarters.  But  no  institution  amongst  us  can  be  clearer  to 
the  hearts  of  the  American  people,  more  deeply  enshrined  in 
the  precious  memories  of  their  forefathers,  and  more  congenial 
to  all  their  patriotic  hopes  for  the  future,  than  the  common 
school — the  school  supported  bj  the  common  fund  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  open,  in  common,  to  all  the  children  of  the  people.  If 
we  have  an  institution  in  America,  which  is  essentially  and  in- 
tensely American,  in  its  spirit  and  design,  in  all  its  tendencies 
and  results,  combining  beautifully  the  three  great  elements  of  re- 
publicanism— liberty,  equality,  fraternity — that  institution  is  the 
common  school.  If  there  is  any  one  eflQcieut  source  of  influence  in 
our  country  which  is  naturally  calculated  to  heal  those  anti- 
pathies and  animosities,  that  separate  the  rich  and  the  poor,  to 
act  as  a  check  upon  those  sectarian  jealousies  that  divide  us  as 
Christians,  and  to  break  down  those  distinctions  of  language 
and  nationality  that  arise  from  the  different  European  races 
composing  our  population,  so  as  to  bind  us  all  together  in  the 
bonds  of  a  common  brotherhood,  it  is  that  influence,  of  early, 
universal,  and  ceaseless  operation,  which  goes  out  from  the  com- 
mon school.  We  cannot  but  think  that  the  saddest  day  which 
could  dawn  on  this  fair  land,  and  these  glorious  institutions  of 
our  fathers,  would  be  that  in  which  our  common  school  educa- 
tion should  cease,  and  leave  the  children  of  America  to  grow  np 
under  the  unchecked  influence  of  all  those  antagonisms  of  wealth 
and  poverty,  of  religious  sects,  of  political  parties,  and  of  differ- 
ent races,  which  now  distinguish  and  curse  the  nations  of  Eu- 
rope. As  it  is,  these  bitter  waters  are,  in  a  manner,  healed 
with  us  at  the  fountain-head,  by  casting  the  salt  of  a  common 
education,  a  common  patriotism,  and  a  common  Christianity 
into  our  common  schools.  And  that  healing  salt  is  the  Bible. 
It  is  the  cotnmon  school  that  constitutes  the  hope  and  conserv- 


OF   THE    BIBT.E.  51 

ator  of  our  country.     And  it  is  the  Bible  that  makes  the  com- 
mon school  so  hopeful  and  conservatory. 

Now,  it  seems  to  us,  that  we  have  already  pointed  out  the 
true  ground  on  which  the  Bible  is  to  be  defended  as  a  text-book 
of  education  in  every  school  supported  by  the  state.  That 
ground  is,  that  the  Bible  has  other  highly  iuiportant  claims  be- 
sides those  of  religion  ;  claims,  too,  which  fall  fully  within  the 
province  of  legislation  which  rightfully  belongs  to  the  state,  as 
a  state.  The  Bible  has  lessons  for  the  state,  and  lessons  for 
society,  as  truly  as  it  has  them  for  the  church,  and  for  the  in- 
dividual. Society  and  the  state,  as  such,  can  no  more  set  aside 
those  lessons,  than  can  the  church  and  the  individual.  It  is  not 
that  the  state  undertakes  to  teach  religion,  when  it  provides  a 
common  education  for  its  children,  and,  as  the  best  of  all  guar- 
anties for  ihe  education  which  it  needs,  introduces  the  Bible 
into  its  common  schools.  Not  at  all.  But  it  is  that  the  state 
has  a  mission  to  perform  for  all  its  citizens,  and  a  work  of  edu- 
cation to  do  for  all  its  children,  which  it  is  bound  to  attend  to, 
Avhich  it  can,  in  no  wise,  refuse  or  delegate  to  another,  without 
repudiating  the  high  obligation  laid  upon  it  by  the  God  of  na- 
tions. This  high  obligation  is,  to  secure  for  all  its  children  such 
an  education,  both  intellectual  and  moral,  as  shall  make  them 
good  citizens.  Now,  intelligence  and  morality,  as  all  agree,  are 
essential  to  good  citizenship.  So  that  if  the  state  undertakes 
to  teach  any  thing,  it  must  teach  morality.  But  there  is  no 
substantial  morality  without  the  sanctions  of  religion.  God 
and  a  future  state  are  as  truly  the  basis  of  all  moral  as  of  all 
religious  duties.  In  teaching  morality,  therefore,  the  state  must 
teach  religion,  so  far  forth  as  religion  is  needful  to  morality. 
Hence,  the  Bible  has  claims  to  be  taught  in  schools  supported 
by  the  state  ;  just  because  this  book,  which  contains  our  rcli- 


62  GENERAL   CHARACTEKISTICS 

gion,  at  the  same  time  contains  all  the  sanctions,  which  give  force 
to  moral  duties.  And  the  state  can  no  more  teach  morality 
aua  make  good  citizens  without  the  Bible,  than  the  church  can 
make  Christians  without  it. 

The  book  of  God  is  as  truly  a  revelation  of  morality  for  the 
state,  as  it  is  a  revelation  of  religion  for  the  church.  Short  and 
simple,  then,  is  the  chain  of  reasoning  which  binds,  with  all  the 
force  of  an  unanswerable  logic,  the  Bible  to  the  state  school. 
These  are  its  links  ;  good  citizenship  is  the  highest  interest  of 
the  state  ;  but  there  is  no  good  citizenship  without  a  right  edu- 
cation ;  there  is  no  right  education  without  morality  ;  there  is 
no  sound  morality  without  religion  ;  and  there  is  no  true  religion 
without  the  Bible.  So,  that  if  the  state  provides  any  school  at 
all  for  its  children  (and  if  it  does  not,  it  is  worse  than  infidel), 
and  seeks  to  inculcate  that  morality,  which  is  as  needful  as 
intelligence,  to  make  good  citizens,  it  cannot  consfstently  exclude 
the  Bible  from  its  schools,  any  more  than  it  can  divorce  morality 
from  religion.  Clearly,  if  it  is  essential  to  the  welfare  and  to 
the  very  existence  of  the  state,  that  its  children  should  have  the 
right  moral  training,  and  if  they  cannot  obtain  such  training 
without  religion  and  the  Bible,  the  state  is,  in  duty  bound,  to 
take  the  book  along  with  its  religion  for  the  sake  of  its  moral- 
ity. But  why  should  any  state  wish  to  put  asunder  two  things 
which  God  hath  thus  joined  together  in  indissoluble  ties  ?  It 
cannot  be  done.  Religion  and  morality  go  together  in  the  Bible, 
and  they  must  ever  stand  in  eternal  wedlock.  We  are  willing 
to  concede  that  the  great  object  of  the  state,  in  introducing  the 
Bible  as  a  text-book  in  the  common  or  public  school,  is  not  to 
teach  religion,  but  only  morality  and  intelligence.  This  is 
enough  for  the  state.  We  are  willing,  nay,  we  greatly  prefer, 
to  leave  religion  to  be  taught  by  its  own  appropriate  officers, 


OF    THE    BIBLE.  53 

in  its  Divinel^/i  appointed  schools — the  family  and  the  church. 
We  agree  that  the  state,  as  such,  has  no  mission  to  teach  reli- 
gion, except  so  far  as  it  is  essential  to  all  good  citizenship,  by- 
being  the  basis  of  morality,  virtue,  and  good  government.  To 
the  church  and  to  the  famiW,  to  the  ministers  of  the  one  and 
the  parents  of  the  other,  belongs  the  great  work  of  teaching  the 
religion  of  the  Bible,  as  an  institution  of  God,  designed  to  pre- 
pare men  for  immortality.  The  state  has  nothing  to  do  with 
the  spiritual  and  immortal  interests  of  man,  regarded  as  a 
candidate  for  eternity.  But  it  has  much  to  do,  aye,  everything 
to  do  with  his  moral,  social  and  political  interests,  regarded  as 
a  citizen,  an  inhabitant  of  this  world. 

AVhen  the  state,  therefore,  provides  an  education  for  its 
children,  and  places  the  Bible  in  their  hands  as  a  school-book, 
it  is  not  to  prepare  them  for  eternity.  It  is  simply  and  exclu- 
sively to  prepare  them,  as  citizens,  for  the  duties  of  this  world  ; 
those  duties,  too,  which  no  free  state,  like  ours,  founded  on 
popular  intelligence  and  virtue,  can  neglect  without  infinite 
peril  to  its  own  existence.  Here,  then,  on  this  plain,  palpable 
distinction,  we  rest  our  plea  for  the  Bible,  iu  the  state  or  public 
school.  Aside  from  its  bearings  on  our  immortal  destinies,  all 
experience  and  history  have  proved  this  to  be  the  best  book,  to 
secure  our  temporal  interests,  to  fortify  our  virtue  against  all 
temptation,  to  foster  our  love  of  liberty  and  social  order,  to 
expand  our  patriotism,  to  inspire  us  with  a  heroic  moral  courage, 
to  ennoble  our  sense  of  honor  and  personal  dignity,  to  enlarge 
our  intelHgence,  and  to  form,  within  us,  all  those  habits  of 
industry,  economy,  sobriety,  enterprise,  and  integrity,  which  go 
to  make  up  individual  moral  character,  the  wealth  of  nations, 
and  the  bliss  of  human  life.  Let  the  state,  if  you  please,  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  child  as  an  immortal  being,  and  with 
the  Bible  as  a  religious  system  ;  our  argument  for  the  common 


54:  GENEEAL    CHARACTERISTICS 

school,  as  ca  state  institution,  and  for  the  Bible,  as  its  book  of 
instruction,  still  stands  in  all  its  force  ;  because,  as  citizens,  we 
can  no  more  dispense  with  its  influence  for  this  world,  than  we 
can,  as  Christians,  do  without  its  hopes  for  the  next. 


VIII. THE    BIBLE    THE    PALLADIUM    OF    AMERICAN  INSTITUTIONS. 

If  all  this  is  true  of  the  state  in  general,  with  what  special 
force  does  it  apply  to  our  own  government,  where  all  sove- 
reignty is  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  and  everything  depends 
on  popular  virtue  and  intelligence  ?  In  such  a  government  as 
this,  it  is  impossible  to  place  too  high  an  estimate  upon  popular 
education  in  the  common  school.  There  can  be  no  work  more 
important,  no  interest  more  precious,  no  object  more  worthy  of 
the  fostering  care  of  the  state,  than  the  education  of  its  children. 
If  legislation  is  competent  to  anything,  and  fit  for  anything  on 
earth,  it  is  to  conserve  this  interest,  and  do  this  work.  What- 
ever else  may  be  done,  or  left  undone,  and  be  the  cost  of  this 
what  it  may,  no  state  can  neglect  it  without  peril  and  ultimate 
ruin.  Our  people  must  be  educated.  The  children  must  have 
schools.  Education  is  vital  to  our  existence.  Our  social  and 
political  salvation  depends  on  it.  Any  policy,  which  overlooks 
or  neglects  this,  is  suicidal  to  the  state's  own  existence. 

But  we  are  persuaded,  that  the  American  people  are  fully 
awake  to  tlie  importance  of  this  great  work.  If  there  is  any- 
thing, for  which  they  are  willing  to  pay  out  of  their  common 
funds,  around  which  they  love  to  rally  as  a  common  standard, 
and  which,  as  a  common  heritage  bequeathed  by  their  fathers, 
they  are  ready  to  defend  to  the  last,  with  united  hearts  and 
hands,  it  is  education  in  the  common  school. 

We  are  persuaded,  that  the  common  school,  m  a  manner  the 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  5^ 

germ  and  nucleus  of  our  free  institutions,  so  early  adopted,  so 
universally  received,  so  beneficial  in  all  its  results,  so  congenial 
to  our  fundamental  laws,  and  so  identified  with  all  the  feelings, 
and  habits,  of  the  common  people,  is  the  last  thing  on  earth 
which  they  would  ever  consent  to  surrender.  And  if  any  per- 
sons in  our  land,  misled  by  their  European  education  and  pre- 
judiceS;  and  moved  by  the  direction  of  a  foreign  hierarchy,  have 
ever  imagined,  that  our  admirable  common  school  system,  with 
all  its  prestige  of  a  glorious  origin  and  a  blessed  success,  could 
be  broken  down  and  supplanted,  we  have  only  to  say,  that  they 
have  mistaken  the  spirit  of  the  times  and  of  the  country  in 
which  they  live.  Attempt  to  break  down  our  common  schools  ! 
And  who  shall  attempt  it  ?  No  man,  endowed  with  the  heart 
of  a  patriot,  or  the  wisdom  of  a  statesman,  can  ever  regard 
such  an  attempt  but  with  abhorrence  and  execration.  When- 
ever, wherever,  and  by  whomsoever  made,  it  must  and  will  be 
covered  with  a  signal  and  ignominious  defeat,  as  it  has  been 
already.  Ten  thousand  voices  shall  be  lifted  with  indignation 
against  it. 

Tlie  American  people  love  a  free  education,  as  they  love  the 
laud  that  gave  them  birth,  and  will  stand  by  the  common  school. 
They  will  look  upon  opposition  to  this  cherished  institution  of 
their  country,  from  whatever  quarter,  as  sacrilegious  and  trai- 
torous to  the  best  interests  of  the  country.  Whatever  deeds 
of  darkness,  and  heaven-daring  oppression,  may  be  perpetrated 
in  the  Old  World,  the  fires  of  civil  and  religious  liberty  are  not 
to  be  extinguished,  nor  the  progress  of  civilization  arrested,  nor 
the  sun-dial  of  the  world  reversed,  nor  the  common  schools  of 
America  sacrificed,  at  the  dictation  of  any  foreign  despot,  or 
the  interference  of  any  old  or  new  order  of  Jesuits.  No  I  the 
sovereign  people  know  their  rights,  and  their  mterests,  and  dare 


56  GENERAL    CHARACTERISTICS 

maintain  them.  It  was  amongst  the  first  lessons  of  their  child- 
hood, learned  at  the  common  school,  and  from  the  Bible  ;  and 
it  will  be  one  of  the  last  which  they  can  ever  forget.  The  com- 
mon school  system  must  and  will  stand  so  long  as  our  people 
remain  worthy  of  their  common  ancestry.  Sooner  may  you  stop 
the  tranquil  but  resistless  flow  of  our  mighty  rivers,  or  dethrone 
our  monarch  mountains  from  their  seats,  than  break  down  the 
common  school  system  of  America.  By  all  the  lessons  of  their 
past  history,  our  countrymen  have  been  taught  to  look  upon 
their  common  school  system  as  the  great  fountain  of  their 
national  glory,  and  the  most  important  safeguard  of  their  liber- 
ties. And  even  so,  what  the  common  school  is  to  the  country, 
the  Bible  is  to  the  common  school — its  peculiar  glory,  its  con- 
servator, its  heaven-derived  Palladium.  But  wiser  and  more 
cautious  than  the  ancient  Trojans,  an  enlightened  people  will 
take  care,  that  no  enemy  at  home  or  abroad,  no  domestic  traitor 
or  wily  foreign  foe,  shall  steal  away  their  Palladium.  They 
will  keep  the  schoolmaster  at  work  in  the  land  ;  and  they  will 
keep  the  Bible  at  work  in  the  school.  And  they  will  thus,  upon 
the  broad  basis  of  popular  intelligence  and  virtue,  build  a  monu- 
ment of  national  glory,  which  shall  stand  to  the  latest  posterity  ; 
a  monument  whose  apex  shall  reach  the  skies,  and  whose  inscrip- 
tions all  nations  shall  read  and  admire — on  one  side,  ''Let  there 
be  light,"  and  on  the  other,  "Esto  Perpetua." 

Yes,  in  the  American  common  school  system,  now  adopted 
and  in  successful  operation  in  almost  every  State  of  our  Union, 
from  ocean  to  ocean,  we  rejoice,  as  in  a  great  national  institu- 
tion— one  of  the  earliest,  as  it  is  the  most  hopeful  of  all  our 
institutions.  We  cling  to  it  as  the  richest  legacy  of  our  fathers, 
the  most  sacred  and  inalienable  birthright  of  our  children. 
We  rejoice,  in  its  past  success,  its  present  favor  with  our  people, 


OF    THE    BIBLE.  '57 

and  its  promise  of  future  good.  We  glory  in  its  republicanism, 
its  nationality,  its  catholicity,  its  entire  exemption  from  a  nar- 
row partisan  and  sectarian  character.  We  love  it,  because  it 
is  thoroughly  and  intensely  American.  It  is  free  like  the  air 
we  breathe,  large  like  the  rirers,  lakes  and  mountains  where  we 
dwell,  radiant  with  light  and  bountiful  with  blessed  influences, 
like  the  all-surrounding  skies  that  bend  in  beauty  over  our  land. 
It  suits  our  country.  It  suits  the  genius  of  our  people.  They 
love  it,  and  are  willing  to  pay  for  its  support.  There  is  no  tax 
which  they  pay  so  willingly  as  that  for  education  ;  and  they 
would  not  only  submit,  but  seek  to  be  taxed,  even  lo  a  ten-fold 
degree,  rather  than  give  up  the  common  school. 

Most  heartily,  then,  do  we  rejoice  in  the  decision  and  unani- 
mity with  which  our  people,  both  native  and  adopted,  have 
risen  up  in  resistance  against  the  recent  outrageous  attempts, 
which  have  been  made,  in  several  of  our  leading  States  and 
cities,  to  divide  and  segregate  to  sectaria'n  purposes,  the  com- 
mon school  fund  of  the  country.  We  cannot  too  highly  ap- 
plaud the  noble  sentiments  of  the  Legislature  of  New  York, 
in  their  refusal  to  lift  so  much  as  a  finger  against  their  common 
school  system,  by  fractiouizing  its  funds  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Church  of  Rome  or  any  other  church.  Truly  and  nobly  do 
they  say  :  "  From  its  inception  down  to  the  present  day,  in 
every  sta^e  of  its  progress,  amid  the  storm  and  tempests  that 
have  attended  the  mutations  of  political  parties  ;  amid  the  ran- 
cor of  theological  controversy,  and  the  heat  of  religious  ex- 
citements, our  common  school  system  has  moved  quietly  and 
majestically  along  from  the  smallest  beginnings  to  its  present 
magnificent  proportions,  under  the  guidance  of  our  pure  and 
patriotic  statesmen,  without  participating  in,  or  ministering  to, 
the  peculiarities  of  any  party  or  sect  ;  its  blessings  falling  upgn 

8* 


58  GENERAL    CHAItACTEKTSTICS 

the  children  and  the  youth  of  the  whole  state,  like  the  dew  of 
heaven,  upon  the  high  and  the  low,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the 
Catholic  and  the  Protestant,  upon  every  shade  of  religious  and 
political  opinion  alike,  without  prejudice  and  without  partial- 
ity/' 

IX. THE    BIBLE   AND   THE    CHURCH    OF    ROME. 

Now  it  cannot  be  concealed,  that  all  this  opposition  to  the 
Bible  in  our  schools,  and  to  the  common  school  system  itself,  on 
account  of  the  Bible,  springs  from  certain  peculiar  dogmas  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  ;  which  dogmas  we  hold  to  be  as  un- 
scriptural  as  they  are  unreasonable  and  unpatriotic.  We  do  not 
intend  to  discuss  them  now.  But  is  it  not  clear  to  the  plainest  un- 
derstanding, that  the  Church  of  Rome  must  feel  herself  to  be  in 
antagonism  with  the  word  of  God,  and  condemned  by  the  word 
God,  when  she  fears  to  give  that  word  to  the  people,  and  with 
the  most  persistent  determination,  seeks  to  exclude  our  glorious 
old  common  version  from  the  common  schools  of  the  country  ; 
nay,  to  exclude  any  and  every  version  of  it,  even  from  her  own 
children  ?  If  she  is  not  afraid  of  the  light,  why  does  she  strive 
to  keep  the  popular  mind  in  darkness  ?  If  she  is  not  afraid  that 
the  "  sincere  milk  of  the  word  "  will  nourish  her  children  and 
ours,  to  thoughts  of  religious  liberty  incompatible  with  her 
claims,  why  does  she  withhold  that  milk  from  the  lambs  of  the 
flock  ?  If  she  feels  confident  of  her  infallibility  and  power,  and 
ill  that  consciousness  has  so  little  to  fear  from  Protestantism, 
why  is  she  in  such  dread  of  a  free  and  open  Bible  ?  Why  not 
let  the  Bible  take  its  way,  as  hitherto,  in  this  free  land  ?  If 
she  is  right,  will  not  a  free  and  open  Bible  advance  her  claims 
the  more  the  people  understand  it  ?     If  she  is  wrong,  had  she 


OF   THE    BIBLE.  69 

not  better  let  the  Bible  put  her  right  ?  If  she  is  afraid  that 
the  people  will  find  Protcstanism  in  our  good  old  English  Bible, 
or  even  in  her  Douay  Bible,  can't  she  make  a  Bible,  or  at  least 
a  translation  of  it,  wliich  she  is  not  afraid  to  give  to  the  peo- 
ple and  to  her  own  children  ?  Half  a  loaf  is  better  than  no 
bread.  The  most  imperfect  translation  is  better  than  no  Bible  ; 
even  as  Romanism  itself  is  better  than  no  religion. 

If  we  could  see  the  Church  of  Rome  circulating  any  sort  of 
a  Bible  among  the  masses  of  the  people,  we  should  hail  it  as  the 
dawn  of  a  better  day.  But  does  not  the  Church  of  Rome  hold 
the  Bible  to  be  the  revealed  word  of  God  ?  She  does  ;  and 
claims  to  be  the  very  channel  through  which  it  has  come  down 
to  us.  Why  then  should  a  revelation  from  God  be  locked  up 
from  the  people,  imbedded  forever  like  a  fossil  in  the  rocks  ? 
Admit  that  the  Bible  was  early  given  to  the  Church  of  Rome 
as  she  claims,  is  it  her  grand  mission  to  fossilize  it  under  the 
mountains  of  her  traditions  on  the  plea  of  safe-keeping  ?  The 
pyramids  of  Egypt  might  have  kept  it,  in  a  mummy  case, 
just  as  well.  She  might  as  well  contend  that  God  has  author 
ized  her  to  bury  the  sun,  as  to  hide  his  word  in  the  way  she 
has  done  it.  Her  steadfast  unwillingness  to  let  the  people  have 
the  Bible  in  their  schools,  is  a  demonstration  as  strong  as  Holy 
Writ,  that  she  is  in  direct  antagonism  to  the  will  of  God,  and 
to  the  whole  letter  and  spirit  of  his  word. 

But  this  is  not  all.  The  determined  opposition  to  the  use  of 
the  Bible  in  the  common  schools  of  the  country,  is  not  more  un 
scriptural  than  it  is  unpatriotic  and  unreasonable.  For  what  is 
the  object  of  all  this  opposition  ?  The  grand  end  in  view,  be 
it  observed,  is  to  conserve  and  promote  the  peculiar  interests  of 
this  very  peculiar  church.  To  save  this  ancient  church  from  the 
damage  or  tlie  danger  of  being  brought  face  to  face  with  the 


60  GENERAL   CHARACTERISTICS 

light  of  God's  word  in  the  presence  of  her  children  and  of  all 
men,  so  great  a  price  must  be  paid,  so  great  a  sacrifice  must  be 
made,  as  the  breaking  up  of  the  whole  system  of  a  united  or  com- 
mon Christian  education.  Does  not  the  highest  interest  of  the 
whole  country  demand  such  an  education  ?  Yes.  And  does  not 
every  statesman  in  America  feel,  that  the  public  weal  requires  that 
our  children  should  be  brought  thus  together  into  one  grand  uni- 
versal system  of  education  ?  Yes.  How  unreasonable  and  unpa- 
triotic, then,  that  one  particular  class  of  Christians,  merely  for 
the  sake  of  promoting  their  own  denominational  views,  should  so 
far  sink  their  country's  well-being  as  to  demand  the  exclusion  of  a 
book,  without  which  there  can  be  no  adequate  Christian  educa- 
tion, or  else  the  surrender  of  a  system  without  which  there  can  be 
no  united  and  general  education  at  all  !  Would  any  Protestant 
sect  thus  venture  to  array  its  own  peculiar  ecclesiastical  inter- 
ests in  direct  antagonism  with  those  of  the  nation  whose  protec- 
tion it  enjoys,  and  whose  welfare  it  is  bound  to  seek  ? 

What  is  the  Church  of  Rome,  more  than  any  other  church, 
that  she  should  claim  the  children  of  the  state  as  her  own  ;  and 
not  only  so,  but  demand  a  separate  provision  out  of  the  public 
funds  for  her  intensely  sectarian  and  exclusive  schools  ?  Would 
not  such  a  demand  from  any  Protestant  body  be  resisted  as  un- 
reasonable and  unpatriotic  ?  Is  there  no  patriotism  in  Ameri- 
can Romanism,  no  spirit  of  compromise,  no  statesmanship,  no 
self-sacrifice  on  the  altar  of  our  common  country  ?  Is  the 
spirit  of  Lord  Baltimore  gone  from  its  councils  ?  Is  the  illus- 
trious name  of  Carroll  no  longer  a  watchword  for  enlarged 
liberality  among  its  members?  Have  American  Romanists 
ceased  to  be  patriots  by  becoming  churchmen  ?  Have  they 
sunk  the  citizen  forever  in  the  ecclesiastic  ?  Have  they  adopted 
the  maxim,  "  Millions  for  the  church,  but  not  a  cent  for  the 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  61 

country  ?-'  Is  Rome  everything,  America  nothing,  in  their 
policy  ?  Have  they  no  common  interests  with  their  Protestant 
fellow-citizens — no  broad  ground  of  humanity  and  religion, 
where  they  can  stand  together  to  teach  morality  and  good  citi- 
zenship on  the  basis  of  the  revelation  of  God  ?  Why  should 
this  extraordinary,  and  as  it  seems  to  us,  infatuated  devotion  to 
one  peculiar  form  of  worship,  be  made  to  override  every  other 
interest  of  the  country,  and  every  great  object  which  prompts 
the  state  to  give  intelligence  and  virtue  to  its  children  in  pub- 
lic Christian  schools  !  Can  it  be  possible,  that  even  here,  in 
free,  happy  America,  every  lesson  of  morality,  every  sentiment 
of  brotherhood,  every  bond  of  patriotism,  nay,  every  great 
fundamental  truth  of  our  common  Christianity,  must  be  sacri- 
ficed upon  the  altar  of  a  fierce  fanatical  zeal  for  church  propa- 
gandism  ?  Is  the  state  nothing,  the  country  nothing,  its  educa- 
tional institutions  nothing  ?  Is  the  church  the  only  institution 
in  the  land  whose  welfare  is  to  be  consulted,  whose  right  and 
title  to  the  child  can  stand  ?  And  has  it  come  to  this,  that 
churchmen  have  no  duties  to  discharge,  no  interests  to  subserve, 
but  ecclesiastical  duties  and  interests  ? 

We  would  not  willingly  misrepresent  the  objects  and  aims  of 
the  Church  of  Rome  ;  nor  would  we  oppose  them  with  any 
other  weapons  than  those  of  truth  and  reason.  But  her  oppo- 
sition to  the  Bible,  as  the  basis  of  education  in  this  Christian 
land,  and  to  the  common  public  school  system,  we  hold  to  be 
unreasonable,  unpatriotic,  and  anti-American.  There  is  no 
catholicity  in  her  conduct.  For  what  is  she  doing  ?  What  is 
it  but  to  draw  an  eternal  barrier  between  the  children  of  Pro- 
testant and  Catholic,  spiked  and  defended,  from  the  cradle  to 
the  grave,  by  an  exclusive  ecclesiastical  education  ?  What  is 
ii,  but  to  pour  the  waters  of  sectarianism  iuto  all  the  fountains 


§$  gp:ne^AL  characteristics 

of  life,  and  thus  destroy  all  hope  of  an  enlarged  public  spirit 
and  patriotism  ?  It  is  a  fearful  responsibility  which  the  Church 
of  Rome  has  taken,  in  thus  putting  herself  in  antagonism,  first 
with  the  word  of  God,  and  then  with  the  progress  of  the  age, 
and  then  with  the  great  educational  interest  of  our  country.  If 
this  be  the  temper  of  the  Church  of  Rome  in  America — this, 
the  type  of  her  patriotism — this,  the  character  of  her  influence 
— this,  the  end  and  object  of  her  existence — all  men  must  see 
that  she  is  utterly  out  of  harmony  with  the  progress  of  the  age, 
and  the  spirit  of  our  institutions.  As  such,  she  is  evidently 
destined  to  one  of  two  things — either  to  lose  her  influence  more 
and  more,  or  to  amend  her  ways  and  let  the  word  of  God  pre- 
vail. 

But,  perhaps  you  are  ready  to  say,  we  have  forgotten  our 
profession  of  liberality,  and  entered  the  field  of  controversy. 
'Tis  not  so,  however.  We  think  it  no  illiberality  to  oppose 
illiberality  :  and  that  narrow  churchism,  which  wages  war 
against  the  Bible  and  the  common  school  system  of  our  coun- 
try, it  is  the  duty  of  all  good  men  to  repudiate  and  denounce. 

These  remarks,  upon  one  of  the  most  vital  questions  of  our 
times,  which  has  already  engaged  public  attention,  and  will 
probably  engage  it  still  more  hereafter,  cannot  be  deemed  inap- 
propriate in  our  present  argument  for  the  Bible.  If  there  is 
any  subject  which  we  have  deeply  at  heart,  and  on  which 
we  would  desire  to  speak  out,  in  a  voice  to  be  heard 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  our  land,  it  is  our 
country's  welfare,  as  connected  with  the  common  school  and 
the  Bible.  We  believe  that  our  country's  welfare,  in  all  time 
to  come,  is  bound  up  in  this  question.  We  hold  the  Bible  to 
be  the  great  light  of  education,  as  it  is  the  light  of  the  world  ; 
and  education  to  be  the  life  of  our  countrv.     To  exclude  the 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  63 

Bible  from  education,  is  to  exclude  the  soul  from  the  body,  to 
shut  out  the  sun-light  from  the  world.  It  is  to  exclude  the  word  of 
God  from  the  works  of  God  ;  the  intelligence  and  perfection  of 
God  from  the  rational  and  moral  creatures  of  God.  We  hold,  that 
as  the  world  now  stands,  destitute  of  any  other  Divine  revelation, 
the  Bible  is  essential  to  the  education  of  man  ;  that  it  is  utter- 
ly impossible  for  the  human  race,  anywhere,  to  produce  a  noble 
development  of  genius  or  character — a  really  great  man — with- 
out the  Bible.  However  we  may  explain,  or  account  for  the 
great  characters  of  classical  antiquity,  it  is  manifest,  that  the 
stamen  of  humanity  in  our  times  is  not  sufficient  of  itself — 
enough  of  its  original  force,  given  at  the  creation,  does  not  re- 
main to  produce  a  great  nation,  or  even  a  single  great  man,  with- 
out the  Bible.  It  is  manifest  to  every  thoughtful  student  of  the 
past,  and  close  observer  of  the  present,  that  if  the  Bible  could 
be  obliterated  from  Christendom,  or  even  suppressed  everywhere, 
as  it  now  is  in  Papal  countries,  the  human  race  would  speed- 
ily go  back  into  tliat  barbarism  from  which  the  Bible  has  re- 
claimed it,  and  now  alone  saves  it.  Humanity,  as  the  world 
now  is,  must  be  brought  into  individual  contact  with  God,  be- 
fore it  is  capable  of  receiving  anything  good,  or  doing  anything 
great.  And  without  the  Bible,  no  such  contact  or  intercourse  be- 
tween God  and  man  is  now  possible. 

We  stand  no,  then,  for  the  schools  of  the  country,  and  for 
the  Bible  in  the  schools,  just  as  we  should  do  if  we  had  no  con- 
nection with  any  church.  We  love  Zion,  and  we  expect  to 
labor  for  Zion's  welfare.  But  we  love  the  country  also.  We 
have  no  interests  and  aims,  as  Christians,  incompatible  with  the 
country's  common  weal.  The  state  is  ordained  of  God  as  well 
as  the  church.  The  duties,  which  bind  us  to  the  state  as  citi- 
zens and  as  patriots,  are  sacred,  and  form  an  important  part 


64  GENERAL   CHAEACTERISTICS 

of  our  re.igion.  We  love  and  advocate  the  clmrcli  schools  of 
every  grade,  from  the  parochial  to  the  theological  seminarv. 
We  are  friendly,  also,  to  schools  supported  by  private  enter- 
prise. Let  all  do  what  they  can.  There  is  room  enough  and 
work  enough  for  all. 

But  we  cannot  lose  sight  of  the  fact,  that,  with  all  these  in 
the  field,  there  will  still  remain  millions  of  children,  whom  no 
private,  no  denominational,  and  none  but  a  state,  or  municipal 
free  school,  can  ever  reach.  Whilst,  therefore,  as  Christians, 
we  establish,  and,  with  all  the  resources  within  our  power,  sus- 
tain our  own  denominational  institutions,  we  have  no  desire  or 
intention  to  segregate  ourselves  or  our  churches  from  the  com- 
mon interests  of  our  fellow-citizens,  and  the  common  schools  of 
our  country.  No  ;  Protestants  have  a  state  to  cherish  as  well 
as  a  church  ;  we  are  citizens  and  patriots,  not  less  than  Christ- 
ians. With  our  fellow-Christians  of  all  evangelical  orders,  we 
take  a  wider  range,  we  repudiate  that  narrow  churchism,  which 
walls  itself  round  with  a  fortress  of  fanaticism,  and  wages  an 
implacable  war  against  every  interest  but  its  own  ;  we  stand, 
where  we  have  ever  stood — and  where  our  fathers  stood — by 
the  country  and  its  institutions — its  common  school  and  its 

BIBLE. 

X. CONCLUDING    REMARKS. 

And  now,  as  we  shall  be  able  to  travel  with  you  over  the  pages 
of  this  wonderful  book,  sketching  its  deversified  scenes  and 
characters,  noting  its  chief  points  of  beauty  and  sublimity,  un- 
folding its  historical,  biographical,  literary  and  scientific  attrac- 
tions, we  trust  you  will  bear  in  mind  one  thing  :  and  that  is,  we 
must  not  expect  to  understand  everything,  nor  to  find  everything 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  65' 

beautiful  and  sublime,  any  more  than  we  do  in  the  world  of 
nature.  The  world  is  worth  seeing,  and  worth  travelling  over, 
although  it  may  not  be  all  attractive,  or  equally  instructive. 
And  so  it  is  with  the  Bible.  Let  us  ponder  the  striking  and 
appropriate  remarks  of  McCheyne  : 

"  He  would  be  a  sorry  student  of  this  world  who  should  forever 
confine  his  gaze  to  the  fruitful  fields  and  well-watered  gardens 
of  this  cultivated  earth.  He  could  have  no  true  idea  of  what 
the  world  was,  unless  he  had  stood  upon  the  rocks  of  our  moun- 
tains, and  seen  the  bleak  muirs  and  mosses  of  our  barren  land  ; 
unless  he  had  paced  the  quarter-deck,  when  the  vessel  was  out  of 
sight  of  land,  and  seen  the  waste  of  waters  without  any  shore 
upon  the  horizon. 

"  Just  so,  he  would  be  a  sorry  student  of  the  Bible  who 
would  not  know  all  that  God  has  inspired  ;  who  would  not  ex- 
amine into  the  most  barren  chapters,  to  collect  the  good  for 
which  they  were  intended  ;  who  would  not  strive  to  understand 
all  the  bloody  battles  which  are  chronicled,  that  he  might  find 
bread  out  of  the  eater  and  honey  out  of  the  lion." 

We  must  also  bear  in  mind  another  thing,  if  we  would 
rightly  appreciate  the  Bible  ;  and  that  is  the  remarkable  man- 
ner in  which  its  utterances  contain  the  undeveloped  elements  of 
all  subsequent  progress,  even  as  the  nut  contains  the  kernel,  or 
the  seed  the  germ  of  life.  This  is  one  of  the  clearest  marks  of 
its  Divine  inspiration.  There  is  everywhere  a  wisdom,  wider 
and  deeper  than  the  words  seem  at  first  to  convey — a  wisdom 
often  profound  in  exact  proportion  to  the  simplicity  of  the 
words  This  is  strikingly  illustrated  in  all  the  New  Testament 
writers  ;  but  especially  in  the  words  of  Clirist,  of  whom  in  this, 
as  in  all  other  respects,  it  was  most  true,  that  "  never  man 
spake  like  this  man."     Says  the  learned  Neander  :    "  Jesus 


66  GENERAL   CHARAGTEEISTICS 

would  not  have  been  Son  of  God  and  Son  of  Man,  had  not  his, 
words,  like  his  work?,  with  all  their  adaption  to  the  circum- 
stances of  the  times,  contained  some  things  that  are  inexplicable 
— had  they  not  borne  concealed  within  them  the  germ  of  an 
infinite  development,  reserved  for  future  ages  to  unfold.  It  is 
this  feature — and  all  the  evangelists  concur  in  their  representa 
tions  of  it — which  distinguishes  Christ  from  all  other  teach- 
ers of  men.  Advance  as  they  may,  they  can  never  reach 
him." 

Indeed  this  profound,  and  far-reaching  wisdom,  which  antici- 
pates all  subsequent  advancement,  and  reveals  a  mind  in  har- 
mony with  truth  and  nature,  is  the  truest  test  by  which  we  can 
measure  the  greatness  of  our  fellovv-mcn.  Lord  Bacon  could 
confidently  appeal  to  the  future  and  calmly  commend  his  writ- 
ings to  the  judgment  of  posterity.  John  Milton  could  do  the 
same,  not  fearing  that  the  world  would  suffer  his  immortal  verse 
to  die.  The  sententious  wisdom  of  Shakspeare,  not  less  than  his 
dramatic  genius,  has  made  his  utterances  now  for  centuries  the 
familiar  household  words  of  all  who  speak  the  English  tongue 
The  same  wisdom  may  be  seen  in  Burke,  in  Dr.  Johnson,  in  our 
own  Franklin  and  Webster,  indeed  in  all  great  thinkers.  Liv- 
ing not  alone  for  one  age  or  generation,  they  are  often  in 
advance  of  their  times,  and  are  enabled  so  to  speak  and  write 
that  their  words  become  the  chosen  vehicles  of  thought  for  all 
other  men.  But,  in  this  respect,  how  do  all  the  great  master, 
minds  of  ancient  and  modern  times  fall  into  the  background 
compared  with  Christ  and  the  sacred  writers  !  From  Socrates 
and  Plato  to  the  present  hour,  many  memorable  sayings  have 
been  uttered,  many  eloquent  passages  recorded,  which  can  never 
die.  But  where  shall  we  find  words  so  pregnant  with  meaning, 
and  so  incorporated  into  the  thoughts  of  other  men,  as  those 


OF  THB  BIBLE.  GT 

brief  words  of  the  Frayer,  the  Parables,  the  Conversations,  and 
the  public  Discourses,  of  Jesus  Christ  ? 

Amongst  all  the  memc/able  things  spoken  by  Napoleon 
Bonaparte,  none  is,  perhaps,  more  remarkable  than  the  follow- 
ing tribute  to  the  gospel  of  Christ,  given  in  a  conversation  with 
General  Bertrand  at  St.  Helena:  "The  gospel  possesses  a 
secret  virtue  of  indescribable  efficacy,  a  warmth  which  influences 
the  understanding  and  softens  the  heart ;  in  meditating  upon  it 
you  feel  as  you  do  in  contemplating  the  heavens.  The  gospel 
is  more  than  a  book  ;  it  is  a  living  thing,  active,  powerful, 
overcoming  every  obstacle  in  its  way.  See,  upon  this  table, 
this  book  of  books  (and  here  the  Emperor  touched  it  reve- 
rently) ;  I  never  cease  reading  it,  and  always  with  new  delight. 
Christ  never  hesitates,  never  varies  in  his  instructions,  and  the 
least  of  his  assertions  is  stamped  with  a  sincerity  and  a  depth, 
which  captivate  the  ignorant  and  the  learned  if  they  give  it 
their  attention." 

If  such  words  of  praise  from  the  world's  most  wonderful  man 
be  deemed  worthy  of  attention,  how  much  more  the  words  them- 
selves whose  divine  attractions  he  seemed  to  feel  I 


68  POETRY  AND  THE  BAUDS 


CHAPTER  II. 

POETRY  AND  THE  BARDS  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

Nature  and  Uses  of  Poetry  in  the  Bible — DiCference  between  Hebrew  Prose  and  Poetry 
— Stj'le  of  Hebrew  Poetry,  Parallelism — Spirit  of  Hebrew  Poetry— Departments  of 
Hebrew  Poetry— Influence  of  Hebrew  Poetry— "Writers  of  Poetry  in  the  Bible— Tho 
Seven  Greater  Bards — The  Argument  from  Poetry— Concluding  Remarks. 

I, THE    NATURE    AND    USES    OF     POETRY    IN    THE    BIBLE. 

To  a  mind  capable  of  appreciating  the  sublime  and  the 
beautiful,  one  of  the  highest  literary  attractions  which  the  Bible 
presents,  is  its  poetry.  And  as  all  educated  persons  are  pre- 
sumed to  have  a  taste  sufficiently  cultivated  to  admire  what  is 
grand  or  beautiful,  both  in  nature  and  in  art,  we  could  not 
easily  find  a  theme,  in  the  whole  circle  of  sacred  literature, 
whose  announcement  ought  to  be  more  popular  and  inviting 
than  this — The  Poetry  and  the  Bards  of  the  Bible. 

Poetry  is  the  highest  style  of  human  speech  ;  just  as  speech 
is  the  noblest  vehicle  of  thought  and  feeling.  Poetry  is  the 
language  of  human  nature  when  it  has  found  the  sublime  and 
beautiful — and  not  only  found,  but  felt  it,  and  sought  to  em- 
body and  express  in  numbers,  those  swelling  conceptions  which 
are  too  big  for  common  words.  It  is  the  language  of  the  soul, 
by  which  it  seeks  to  rise  above  itself,  to  hold  sympathetic  and 
congenial  brotherhood  with  all  that  is  true  and  great,  all  that 


OF   THE    BIBLE.  69 

IS  lovely  and  good  in  the  universe  around.  It  is  the  utterance 
of  mortal  man,  when  he  feels  the  most  immortal — when  stand- 
iDf>'  with  his  feet  upon  fields  of  living  green,  his  eyes  upon  the 
blue  fields  of  ether,  he  seeks  to  tell  to  his  companions,  on  the 
earth  and  in  the  heavens,  what  he  sees  and  what  he  feels — 
what  worlds  of  joy,  what  visions  of  hope.  It  is  the  royal 
speech  of  high-born  genius,  striving  to  make  known  to  others, 
in  "  thoughts  that  breathe  and  words  that  burn,"  its  own  dis- 
covery and  appreciation  of  the  infinite,  the  eternal,  the  Divine. 
Hence  poetry,  in  its  highest  style,  is  ever  the  language  of  the 
emotions  and  of  the  imagination — the  sublime  utterance  of  the 
heart's  truest  best  emotions,  when  quickened  into  life  by  the 
imagination,  and  borne  away  on  winged  words,  to  find  a  con- 
genial home  and  resting-place  with  whatsoever  is  most  grand 
and  beautiful  in  the  universe. 

"  As  imagination  bodies  forth 
The  forms  of  things  unknown,  the  poet's  pen 
Turns  theni  to  shapes,  and  gives  to  airy  nothing, 
A  local  habitation  and  a  name." 

So  sings  the  bard  of  Avon  ;  and  no  one  ever  illustrated  more 
strikingly  than  himself,  the  great  truth  of  which  he  sings.  If 
then,  the  plastic  pen  of  poesy,  thus  wielded  by  the  creative 
power  of  imagination,  can  do  so  much,  even  for  "  airy  nothing," 
what,  think  you,  might  it  not  do  for  the  grand  realities  of  life — 
the  substantial,  unfading,  eternal  verities  of  nature,  man  and 
God? 

Is  it  any  wonder  that  when  the  Almighty  had  purposed 
to  make  a  revelation  to  his  children  of  things  which  they 
did  not  and  could  not  know  without  it,  of  things  relating  to 
himself  and  to  the  eternal  interests  of  the  soul,  such  as  truth 


td  POETEir   ANl)  THS  BARD8 

and  virtue,  life  and  death,  heaven  and  hell,  bliss  and  woe — and 
when  it  was  determined  that  this  revelation  should  be  delivered 
by  human  tongues,  recorded  in  a  book  and  handed  down  for 
the  reading  of  all  generations  to  the  end  of  time-^is  it  any 
wonder,  that  holy  men  of  old,  speaking  as  they  were  moved  by 
t]]e  Divine  spirit,  should  speak  on  such  themes  in  the  sublimest 
language  known  to  man — even  the  impassioned,  universal, 
imperishable  language  of  poesy  ?  Indeed  it  would  have  been 
strange,  had  it  been  otherwise — strange  if  the  book  of  God,  had 
not  been  clothed  in  the  brilliant  burning  words  and  images  of 
heaven-born  poetry  :  for  if  human  language  in  any  form  is  of 
Divine  origin,  who  can  doubt  that  the  art  of  poetry,  at  the 
fountain-head,  is  Divine  ?  Accordingly  we  find  this  most  an- 
cient of  all  books  full  of  poetry  ;  nay  more,  we  find  its  very 
prose,  where  there  are  no  poetic  forms  or  numbers,  often  im- 
pregnated with  a  glowing  poetic  spirit,  and  adorned  with  the 
drapery  of  beautiful  poetic  images. 

If  you  will  examine  the  Bible  by  any  just  criterion  as  to  the 
nature  of  prose  and  poetry,  you  will  soon  find  that  the  Old 
Testament  naturally  falls  under  two  grand  divisions,  in  regard 
to  its  style.  The  first,  embracing  all  the  historical  books,  and 
extending  from  Genesis  to  the  close  of  Esther,  is  written  in 
narrative  prose,  with  occasional  odes  and  minor  poems,  ranging 
from  a  verse  to  a  chapter  in  length,  interwoven  with  the  his- 
tory, like  jewels  of  precious  stone  in  a  coronal  of  gold.  The 
second,  reaching  from  Job  to  Malachi,  and  embracing  all  the 
writings  of  Job,  David,  Solomon  and  the  prophets,  is  genuine 
poetry,  both  in  its  spirit  and  its  style,  with  occasional  pieces  of 
historical  prose,  ranging  from  a  verse  to  a  few  chapters  to 
length,  and  interspersed  through  the  whole,  like  the  walks  and 
borders  in  a  garden  of  flowers— being  thrown  in  for  explana- 


OF   THE    BIBLE.  71 

tion,  as  these  are  for  convenience.  Thus  we  have  about  as  much 
narrative  prose  sprinkled  over  the  poetical  department,  as  there 
is  of  poetry  in  the  historical  departmint.  And  yon  will  had,  upon 
examination  and  comparison,  that  the  division  of  poetry  com- 
prises more  than  one  third  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures. 

As  for  the  New  Testament,  it  is  for  the  most  part  historical 
and  epistolary.  Accordingly  it  is  all  written  in  a  prosaic  style, 
with  the  single  exception  of  the  Apocalypse,  which  being  a 
prophetic  and  somewhat  allegorical  book,  has  all  the  sentiment 
and  imagery  of  poetry,  without  the  form  of  rhythm.  The 
narrative  and  epistolary  parts  of  the  New  Testament,  however, 
like  the  prose  division  of  the  Old,  are  interspersed,  though 
somewhat  more  sparsely,  with  occasional  odes,  and  short  poetic 
sentences — ''  disjecta  membra  poetae  1" 

Now,  lest  any  one  should  doubt  the  propriety  of  calling  so 
large  a  portion  of  the  Bible  poetry,  let  us  take  a  single  passage 
from  the  prophetical  books,  as  an  illustration.  Perhaps  you 
have  often  read  the  fourth  chapter  of  Jeremiah,  without  any 
thought  that  you  were  reading  poetry.  But  tell  us,  what  poet 
ever  gave  a  more  fearful  and  vivid  picture  of  utter  desolation, 
than  the  prophet  has  given  of  the  land  of  Judah  in  the  follow- 
ing words,  taken  just  as  they  stand  in  our  English  version  : 

*•  I  beheld  the  earth,  and  lo  !  it  was  without  form  and  void! 

And  the  heaven?,  and  they  had  no  light ! 
I  beheld  the  mountains,  and  lo  !  they  trembled  I 

And  all  the  hills  moved  lightly  ! 
I  beheld,  and  lo  !  there  was  no  man ! 

And  all  the  birds  of  the  heavens  were  fled ! 
I  beheld,  and  lo  !  the  fruitful  place  was  a  wilderness ! 

And  all  the  cities  thereof  were  broken  down 
At  the  presence  of  the  Lord 
And  by  his  fierce  anger." 


72  POETRY    AND   THE   BARDS 

This  is  only  a  small  part  of  the  description,  but  if  this  is  not 
poetry  of  the  highest  order,  then  where  will  you  find  poetry, 
and  what  will  you  say  constitutes  a  title  to  the  name  of  poetry? 
You  will  accordingly  find  the  prophetical  books  mostly  poeti- 
cal :  and  even  in  the  historical  books,  you  will  find  many 
occasional  pieces  of  true  poetry.  Do  you  ask  for  some  examples 
of  these  scattered  members  of  the  poem — these  rare  jewels  of 
the  coronal  ?  In  the  New  Testament,  the  most  noted  examples 
are  the  joyful  odes  of  Elizabeth,  Mary,  and  Zacharias  on  the 
occasion  of  our  Saviour's  approaching  advent,  the  song  of  the 
angels  at  his  birth,  and  that  sublime  strain  of  the.  Baptist  from 
the  wilderness,  which  seemed  to  eclio,  as  from  the  long  silent 
harps  of  the  ancient  prophets.  In  the  Old  Testament,  you  will 
find  such  examples,  as  David's  dirge  over  Jonathan  and  Saul, 
and  his  lament  for  Absalom,  Deborah's  martial  hymn  of  victory, 
Hannah's  beautiful  song  of  thanksgiving  for  Samuel,  the  ode 
of  deliverance  and  triumph  at  the  Red  Sea,  the  farewell  address 
of  Moses  to  Israel  on  the  borders  of  the  promised  land.  You 
will  find  the  elements  of  poetry  in  such  brief  phrases  as  this— 
"  Saul  has  slain  his  thousands,  and  David  his  ten  thousands," 
or  this — "  Hear,  0  Israel,  the  Lord  our  God  is  one  Lord  ;"  or 
still  earlier  in  such  as  this—"  Let  there  be  light,  and  there  was 
light."  This  last,  which  was  pronounced  by  Longinus,  the 
celebrated  critic  of  Greece,  to  be  one  of  the  finest  specimens 
of  the  sublime,  we  may  safely  claim  as  the  most  ancient  line  of 
poetry  in  the  world  :  and  certainly  we  do  not  know  of  any 
modern  line,  more  pregnant  with  thought  or  beauty.  Well 
might  the  patriarch  of  Uz,  long  afterwards,  respond  to  this  first 
1  ivine  utterance  of  poesy,  as  with  a  kindred  spirit,  saying — 

"  Then  the  morningstars  sang  together, 
And  all  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy." 


OF    THE    BIBLE.  73 

If  you  ask,  then,  why  poetry  is  employed  in  the  Bible,  we 
answer,  because  it  is  the  natural  and  congenial  language  of  the 
grand  and  glorious  truths  which  it  is  the  purpose  of  the  Bible 
to  reveal  to  us.  We  answer  furthermore,  it  is  in  order  to  make 
the  book  the  more  attractive.  The  word  of  God  is  clothed  in 
beauty,  for  the  same  reason  that  his  works  are  beautiful.  Just 
as  the  sky  is  blue,  and  the  foliage  green,  and  "  the  light,  sweet 
to  the  eye,"  so  does  the  Bible  possess  a  universal  and  perpetual 
title  to  our  admiration,  by  the  attractiveness  of  its  Divine 
poesy. 

II. DIFFEREXCE    BETWEEN    THE     PROSE    AND    POETRY    OF    THE 

BIBLE. 

But  you  may  be  ready  to  say,  we  see  no  distinction,  at  least, 
no  marked  distinction,  between  the  poetry  of  the  Bible  and  its 
prose — it  seems  to  be  all  alike,  all  written  in  the  same  un- 
measured prosaic  form.  You  must,  however,  bear  in  mind,  that 
it  is  solely  through  the  medium  of  a  prose  translation,  we  now 
become  acquainted  with  the  poetry  of  the  Bible.  Even  the  few 
scholars  who  have  read  it  in  the  original,  had  first  learned  to 
read  it  in  a  prose  translation.  Our  English  translators  were 
great  scholars,  but  they  were  not  poets  ;  and  they  made  no 
attempt  to  preserve  anything  of  the  poetic  rhythm  of  the  original 
Hebrew.  They  would  probably  have  failed,  had  the  attempt 
been  made.  They  might  have  marred  the  beauty  of  the  Hebrew 
muse,  and  done  damage  to  the  exact  meaning  of  the  sacred 
word,  in  trying  to  transfer  it  to  a  poetic  English  version.  Bnt 
had  they,  with  all  their  learning  and  piety,  possessed  the  poetic 
genius  of  Milton  or  Cowper,  or  even  the  nice  poetic  taste  of 
Herder  and  Bishop  Lowth,  our  present  translation  of  Job,  David 

4 


74:  POETRY    AND    THE    BARDS 

Solomon,  and  the  prophets,  would  doubtless  have  retained  much 
more  of  the  original  spirit  and  style  of  poetry. 

Even  as  it  is,  notwithstanding  the  change  from  an  ancient  to 
a  modern  dress,  and  from  an  oriental  to  a  western  tongue,  it  is 
remarkable,  that  so  much  of  the  original  fire  of  the  Hebrew 
muse  should  still  shine  forth  everywhere  in  our  admirable  prose 
translation.  There  is  no  stronger  proof  of  the  indestructible 
character  of  the  poetry  of  the  Bible,  and  of  its  inherent  sublim- 
ity and  beauty,  than  this  fact,  that  through  all  the  disadvan- 
tages and  disguises  of  a  literal  prose  translation,  many  passages 
of  the  poetical  books,  and  nearly  all  the  Psalms,  still  retain  the 
spirit,  and  rhythm,  and  very  music  of  the  bard.  Think  of  read- 
ing any  other  book  of  poetry  under  these  circumstances  ;  think 
of  reading  Homer  and  Virgil,  Milton  and  Shakspeare  reduced 
down  to  a  plain  prose  translation  in  another  tongue.  Could 
any  other  authors  in  the  world,  have  stood  such  a  disrobing  as 
this — such  a  transmigration  to  foreign  lands,  and  investiture  in 
foreign  costumes,  and  have  come  off  half  so  well  as  the  bards 
of  the  Bible  have  ?  Their  poems  have  been  translated  from  a 
southern  to  a  northern  clime,  from  an  eastern  to  a  western 
world,  have  lived  through  all  the  winters  of  thirty  or  forty  cen- 
turies, and  though  still  incased  within  the  uncongenial  frame- 
work of  a  rigid  prose  version,  are  still  poems,  unsurpassed  in 
power  or  pathos  by  any  others  in  the  world. 

Why  is  this  ?  The  reason  is  plain  enough.  It  is  because  the 
living  power  of  Bible  poetry  was  in  the  thought  more  than  in 
the  outward  form  ;  in  the  substance  of  nature  more  than  in  the 
shadow  of  art  ;  in  the  kernel  of  truth  and  not  in  the  shell  of 
mere  words.  It  could  pass  through  the  crucible  of  a  prose 
translation,  and  a  strange  tongue,  undimmed  of  its  fustre,  be 
cause  there  was  a  soul  in  it — a  living  spirit  of  truth  and  beauty 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  75 

in  all  its  words  and  symbols — the  very  breath  of  heaven  and 
inspiration  of  the  Almighty.  In  all  the  bards  of  the  Bible, 
from  Moses  to  David,  and  from  David  to  John,  there  was  ge- 
nius, the  loftiest  flight  of  sanctified  human  genius  ;  but  then  it 
must  never  be  forgotten,  that  in  them  all  there  was  something 
more  than  genius — there  was  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Now  that  every  one  may  see  how  marked  is  the  distinction, 
between  the  poetry  of  the  Bible  and  its  prose,  even  in  our  Eng- 
lish version,  let  us  select  an  example  from  the  book  of  Job, 
which  has  often  been  referred  to,  and  which  exhibits  one  of 
these  sudden  and  striking  transitions.  The  introductory  part  of 
the  book,  contained  in  its  first  and  second  chapters,  is  written 
in  a  plain  narrative  style  and  closes  with  the  second  verse  of 
the  third  chapter,  in  the  following  words — "  So  they  sat  down 
with  him  upon  the  ground  seven  days  and  seven  nights,  and 
none  spake  a  word  unto  him  :  for  they  saw  that  his  grief  war 
great.  After  this  Job  opened  his  mouth  and  cursed  his  day. 
And  Job  spake  and  said  :" 

"  Let  the  day  perish  wherein  I  was  born 
And  the  night  in  which  it  was  said,  '  there  is  a  man  child  conceived. 
Let  that  day  be  darkness : 
Let  not  God  regard  it  from  above, 
Neither  let  the  light  shine  upon  it. 
Let  darkness  and  the  shadow  of  death  stain  it: 
Let  a  cloud  dwell  upon  it ; 
Let  the  blackness  of  the  day  terrify  it. 
As  for  that  night,  let  darkness  seize  upon  it; 
Let  it  not  be  joined  unto  the  days  of  the  year; 
Let  it  not  come  into  the  number  of  the  monthg. 
Lo!  let  that  night  be  solitary  ; 
Let  no  joyful  voice  come  therein. 
Let  them  curse  it,  that  curse  the  day, 
"Who  are  ready  to  raise  up  their  mourning. 


76  POETRY    AND   THE   BARDS 

Let  the  stars  of  the  twilight  thereof  be  dark ; 

Let  it  look  for  light,  but  have  none  ; 

Neither  let  it  see  the  dawning  of  the  day. 

Because  it  shut  not  up  the  doors  of  my  mother's  womb, 

Nor  hid  sorrow  from  mine  eyes." 

In  this  passage,  down  to  the  point  at  which  Job  begins  tc 
speak,  the  language  flows  on  in  simple  narrative,  as  it  has  done 
from  the  opening  sentence  of  the  book,  never  rising  above  the 
common  prose  level  ;  and  no  one  could  ever  mistake  it  for 
poetry.  But  when  Job  speaks,  how  changed  is  the  style  iu 
which  he  pours  out  the  bitter  anguish  of  his  soul  !  Who  could 
ever  mistake  that  remarkable  curse  for  mere  prose  ?  Who, 
that  has  a  heart,  does  not  feel  that  there  is  something  in  the 
tone,  and  sentiment,  and  imagery  and  rhythm  of  these  burning 
words,  far  above  any  ordinary  prose  writing  ?  If  you  will  ex- 
amine Herder's  translation  of  the  passage,  the  contrast  wil 
appear  still  more  striking  than  it  does  in  our  version.  This, 
then,  is  enough  to  illustrate  what  kind  of  poetry  the  Bible  con- 
tains, and  to  show  how  it  rises  and  swells,  with  great  thoughts 
and  great  emotions,  above  the  ordinary  level  of  historical  nar- 
rative on  the  one  hand,  whilst  on  the  other,  there  is  a  play  of 
the  imagination  in  its  metaphors,  and  a  stately  correspondence 
and  harmony  in  its  sentences,  placing  it  on  a  different  ground 
altogether  from  even  the  most  impassioned  and  eloquent  decla- 
matory prose.  It  is  as  far  removed  from  anything  that  can 
rightfully  be  called  oratory,  as  it  is  from  simple  narrative. 

Who,  for  instance,  can  read  a  passage  like  this  from  the 
Psalms,  without  feeling  that  it  is  poetry  ? — 

"  He  bowed  the  heavens  also,  and  came  down : 
And  darkness  was  under  his  feet. 
And  he  rode  upon  a  cherub  and  did  fly : 
Yea,  he  did  fly  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind. 


OF   TUE   BIBLE.  77 

He  made  darkness  his  secret  place : 

His  pavilion  round  about  him  were  dark  waters 

And  thick  clouds  of  the  skies. 

At  the  brightness  that  was  before  him  his  thick  ciouas  passed, 

Hailstones  and  coals  of  fire. 

The  Lord  also  thundered  in  the  heavens, 

And  the  Highest  gave  his  voice 

Hailstones  and  coals  of  fire. 

Yea,  he  sent  out  his  arrows,  and  scattered  them  ; 

And  he  shot  out  lightnings  and  discomfited  them. 

Then  the  channels  of  the  waters  were  seen, 

The  foundations  of  the  world  were  discovered  at  thy  rebuke, 

0  Lord,  at  the  blast  of  the  breath  of  thy  nostrils." 

Or  this  : 

""Whither  shall  I  go  from  thy  Spirit? 
Or  whither  shall  I  flee  from  tliy  presence  ? 
If  I  ascend  up  into  heaven — Thou  art  there : 
If  T  make  my  bed  in  hell — behold  Thou  art  there. 
If  I  take  tlie  wings  of  the  morning, 
And  dwell  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  sea: 
Even  there  shall  thy  hand  lead  me. 
And  thy  right  hand  shall  hold  me. 
If  I  say,  surely  the  darkness  shall  cover  me, 
Even  the  night  shall  be  light  about  me. 
Yea,  the  darkness  hideth  not  from  Thee : 
But  the  night  shineth  as  the  day  : 
The  darkness  and  the  light  are  both  alike  to  Thee." 

Bat  perhaps  yon  are  ready  to  say,  "  How  can  there  be  poetry 
witliout  verse  ?  and  how  can  this  be  poetry  without  so  much 
as  the  sound  of  poetry  ?"  You  will  say,  there  are  no  lofty 
liexameters  here,  like  Homer's,  and  Y;ra:irs  ;  no  majestic,  measur- 
ed, tread  of  the  blank  verse,  like  Milton's  ;  no  smooth-sounding 
rhyme,  like  Pope's  ;  no  musical  jingle  of  the  feet,  like  the  danc- 


78  POETRY    AND    THE   BARDS 

ing  couplets  of  Barns  and  Byron,  Moore  and  Scott.  True, 
indeed  ;  but  as  for  all  that,  is  there  no  poetry  in  Shakspeare  ? 
The  objection  lies  against  him  in  many  passages,  almost  as 
strongly  as  it  does  against  the  bards  of  the  Bible.  You  will 
not  always  find  the  regular  hexameter  and  exactly  measured 
blank  verse,  the  tripping  rhymes,  the  nimble  feet,  and  jingling 
bells  of  modern  poetry  in  Shakspeare,  any  more  than  in  the 
Bible.  It  is  no  unusual  thing  to  find  him  sacrificing  the  sound 
for  the  sake  of  the  sense.  But  you  will  find  in  him,  what  is 
much  more  essential  to  the  existence  of  true  poetry — you  will 
find  originality  and  concentration  of  thought,  the  inexhaustible 
imagery  of  creative  genius,  the  bright  winged  words  of  an  elo- 
quent tongue,  and  a  scul  fired  with  enthusiasm  in  view  of  the 
beauty  and  grandeur  of  universal  nature. 

And  all  this  you  will  find  in  the  bards  of  the  Bible.  You 
will  find  every  essential  element  of  genuine  poetry.  The  only 
element  which  they  appear  to  lack,  is  the  sound  :  and  to  a 
rightly  cultivated  ear  they  do  not  even  lack  that.  To  say  there 
is  no  poetry  in  the  Bible,  because  there  is  no  rhyme,  no  verse 
nicely  measured  by  six  leet  of  spondees  and  dactyls,  no  alter- 
nate movement  of  long  and  sliort  syllables,  is  as  absurd  as  to 
say  there  is  no  music  in  the  roar  of  Niagara  or  the  ocean,  be- 
cause their  waves  do  not  always  keep  the  same  time.  It  is  to 
deny  that  a  man  has  a  soul  within  him,  because  he  does  not  hap- 
pen to  be  dressed  in  the  fashion  of  the  day. 

Yes,  notwithstandmg  the  absence  of  everything  like  our 
modern  versification,  there  is  still  in  all  the  Hebrew  poetry,  as 
appears  even  in  our  prose  translation,  a  regular  rhythm  of  word 
with  word,  a  studied  harmony  of  thought  with  thought,  a 
measured  movement  from  line  to  line,  which  indicates  that  it 
might  be,  as  we  know  much  of  it  was,  set  to  the  music  of  the 


OF   THE    BIBLE.  79 

instrument  and  the  voice.  And  this  harmony  or  rhythm,  in 
thought  and  word,  is  the  first  and  main  criterion  by  which  the 
poetry  of  the  Bible  may  be  easily  distinguished  from  its  prose 
both  in  English  and  in  Hebrew. 


III. THE    STYLE    OF    HEBREW    POETRY PARAILELISM. 

This  brings  us  to  speak  of  the  style,  or  outward  form  of 
Hebrew  poetry  ;  and  of  its  most  peculiar  and  remarkable  char- 
acteristic, which  is  the  parallelism.  Parallelism  is  the  harmony 
or  ryhthm,  produced  by  the  correspondence  of  two  or  more 
clauses,  or  members  of  a  passage  with  each  other.  It  is  a  cor- 
responding of  two  lines,  or  three,  or  even  four,  sometimes  by 
way  of  resemblance  and  sometimes  of  contrast,  in  which  word 
harmonizes  with  word,  thought  with  thought,  and  sentence 
with  sentence  ;  the  one  being  the  complement,  or  counterpart, 
or  antithesis  of  the  other.  Verb  answers  verb,  and  noun  ans- 
wers noun — thought  replies  to  thought  and  feeling  to  feeling, 
as  the  echo  to  the  voice  or  as  deep  calling  unto  deep.  This 
unique,  and  in  many  respects  admirable,  arrangement  admits  of 
manifold  varieties,  and  in  one  form  or  other,  runs  through  all 
the  poetry  of  the  Bible.  The  parallelism,  however,  lies  more  in 
the  sense  than  in  the  sound.  In  this  respect  it  differs  from  our 
English  rhyme,  which  consists  more  in  the  sound  than  the  sense. 
AVith  us  two  lines  or  more  of  verse  are  made  to  correspond, 
simply  by  being  cut  of  equal  length,  and  coupled  at  the  end  by 
syllables  which  sound  alike,  almost  regardless  of  the  sense. 
But  the  Hebrew  parallelism  is  a  harmony  of  much  higher  order. 
It  is  the  rhyme  of  reason.  It  is  the  harmony  of  thought.  It 
iS  not  the  shallow  music  of  symphonious  letters  ;  but  the  deeper, 


80  POETliY    AND    THE   BAUDS 

grander  music  of  symphonious  words  and  sentences  and  ideas 
It  is  not  the  mere  tying  of  two  lines  together  by  a  syllable  at 
the  end,  which  may  have  as  little  concord,  as  two  of  Samson's 
foxes,  when  tied  together  by  the  tails  with  a  fire-brand  between  ; 
but  it  is  the  rhyming  of  whole  propositions,  the  intertwining 
and  intermarrying  of  idea  with  idea  in  indissoluble,  harmo- 
nious, happy  bans.  As  a  vehicle  of  poetry,  the  parallelism 
of  the  Bible,  is  to  our  modern  rhymes,  and  indeed  to  the  spon- 
dees and  dactyls  of  the  Greeks  and  Eomans,  what  the  deep- 
toned  thunder  of  the  organ  would  be  to  the  whistle  of  an  octave 
flute. 

Now  the  several  orders  of  parallelism,  embracing  as  they  do 
almost  every  sort  of  correspondence,  comparison,  contrast,  and 
antithesis,  as  well  as  every  degree  of  length  from  two  words  to 
a  dozen,  are  so  interchanged  in  the  composition  of  Hebrew  poe- 
try as  to  give  it  an  infinite  life  and  variety — relieving  it  at 
once  from  the  stiff  elephantine  tread  of  our  blank  verse  and 
from  the  dull  monotony  of  our  rhyme.  To  use  the  illustrations 
of  Herder,  parallelism  may  be  likened  to  two  strings  of  pearl, 
not  twisted  into  a  garland,  but  simply  hung  up,  the  one  over 
against  the  other.  In  lyric  poetry  it  is  like  the  waves  of  the  sea, 
wave  following  upon  wave,  till  all  the  heart  swells  with  emotion. 
"  In  didactic  poetry  one  precept  confirms  the  other  as  if  the 
father  were  giving  instructions  to  his  son,  and  the  mother  re- 
peating it." 

In  order  to  see  with  what  pliability  and  life  the  parallel- 
ism may  be  adapted  to  every  variety  of  subjects  from  grave  to 
gay,  let  us  take  a  few  examples  of  an  entirely  opposite  charac- 
ter. Let  us  select  first  a  few  couplets  from  the  nineteenth 
Psalm,  marking  the  exact  correspondence  of  the  alternate 
lines. 


OF   THE   BIBLE,  81 

"The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God; 

And  the  firmament  showeth  his  handy  work. 
Day  unto  day  uttereth  speech, 

And  night  unto  night  showeth  knowledge." 
"  The  law  of  the  Lord  is  perfect,  converting  the  soul ; 

The  testimony  of  the  Lord  is  sure,  making  wise  the  simple. 
The  statutes  of  the  Lord  are  right,  rejoicing  the  heart; 

The  commandment  of  the  Lord  is  pure,  enlightening  the  eyes. 
The  fear  of  the  Lord  is  clean,  enduring  forever: 
The  judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous  altogether." 

Was  there  ever  a  more  perfect  adaptation  of  the  music  of  words 
to  the  subject-matter  of  thought  than  this  ?  How  slow,  solemn, 
majestic  is  the  movement  in  these  lines,  befitting  the  dignity 
and  sacredness  of  the  theme  !  The  sublime  conceptions  of  the  in- 
spired bard,  marching  ever  onward  in  heavy  parallel  columns, 
seem  but  to  beat  in  unison  with  those  revolving  seasons  and  or- 
dinances of  heaven,  which  they  essay  to  celebrate  in  words  of 
human  poesy.  We  might  almost  fancy  that  the  "  silent  music 
of  the  spheres  "  had  at  last  found  utterance  in  the  deep  rhythm 
and  harmony  of  these  parallelisms. 

But  let  us  now  turn  to  that  joyous  description  of  the  advent 
of  Spring,  in  the  second  chapter  of  Solomon's  Song,  to  see  what 
this  same  parallelism  can  do  with  a  gay  and  cheerful  theme. 
Let  us  observe,  with  what  gladsome  voice,  with  what  quick  and 
nimble  steps,  and  with  what  ardent  love  of  the  fceautiful,  it  can 
move  through  the  gayest  scenes  of  nature.  Let  us  see  how 
easily,  in  these  same  double  columns,  it  can  pour  forth  the  pas- 
sions of  a  loving  heart,  responsive  to  everything  that  breathes 
of  love  in  the  natural  world  : 

'*  My  beloved  spake,  and  said  unto  me. 

Rise  up  my  love,  my  fair  one,  and  come  away 
4* 


82  POETRY   AND   THE   BARDS 

For,  lo  !  the  winter  is  past, 

The  rain  is  over  and  gone  ; 
The  flowers  appear  on  the  earth ; 

The  time  of  the  singing  of  birds  is  come, 
And  the  voice  of  the  turtle  is  heard  in  our  land ; 

The  fig  tree  putteth  forth  her  green  figs. 
And  the  vines  with  the  tender  grape  give  a  good  smell. 

Arise,  my  love,  my  fair  one,  and  come  away. 
0  my  dove  !  that  art  in  the  clefts  of  the  rock, 

In  the  secret  places  of  the  stairs, 
Let  me  see  thy  countenance, 

Let  me  hear  thy  voice ; 
For  sweet  is  thy  voice, 

And  thy  countenance  is  comely." 

One  of  the  most  beautiful  forms  of  this  parallel  poetry,  is  that 
which  is  called  the  "  Keiterative,"  in  which  the  sense  is  contin- 
ued through  several  lines,  gaining  strength  as  it  advances,  un- 
til some  great  truth  stands  forth  in  all  its  proportions.  The 
first  verse  of  the  first  Psalm  is  a  familiar  example  of  this  ;  and 
a  still  more  striking  one  is  that  memorable  sentence  of  the 
wise  man,  which  no  young  person  should  ever  read  without 
pondering  well  the  fifth  commandment — 

"  The  eye  that  mocketh  at  his  father, 
And  despiseth  to  obey  his  mother. 
The  ravens  of  the  valley  shall  pick  it  out, 
And  the  young  eagles  shall  eat  it." 

Another  and  still  more  remarkable  form  of  this  poetry  is  that 
which  has  been  called  the  "  Introverted,"  in  which  the  thought 
works  inward  and  outward  in  parallel  lines,  the  sense  reaching 
its  climax,  not  at  the  end  of  a  sentence  as  in  the  "  Reiterative," 


OF   THE    BIBLE.  83 

but  in  the  middle.     Take  a  short  example  from  the  Fifty-first 
Psalm,  instanced  by  Dr.  Kitto. 

"  Have  mercy  upon  me,  O  God, 

According  to  thy  loving  kindness, 
According  unto  the  multitude  of  thy  tender  mercies 
Blot  out  my  transgressions." 

Take  a  longer  example  from  the  hundred  and  thirty-fifth 
Psalm  as  given  by  the  same — 

*'  The  idols  of  the  heathen  are  silver  and  gold 
The  work  of  men's  hands ; 
They  have  mouths,  but  they  speak  not ; 
They  have  eyes,  but  they  see  not ; 
They  have  ears,  but  they  hear  not ; 
Neither  is  there  any  breath  in  their  mouths ; 
They  that  make  them  are  hke  unto  them  ; 
So  is  every  one  that  trusteth  in  them." 

This  admirable  and  diversified  parallelism,  or  thought-rhythm, 
as  it  is  called  by  the  more  recent  writers,  is  the  most  peculiar 
and  indestructible  characteristic  of  Hebrew  verse  ;  and,  as  is 
well  remarked  by  Dr.  Kitto,  "  this  is  a  quality  which  is  not 
lost  in  translation — is  indeed  scarcely  affected  by  it,  and  is  man- 
ifested in  a  book,  designed  to  be  translated  into  all  the  Ian. 
guages  of  the  earth.  While  the  metrical  arrangements  of  the 
Greeks  and  Latins,  as  depending  solely  on  the  language,  are 
quite  lost  by  translation  into  another  tongue,  the  rhythmical 
structure  of  the  Hebrew  poem  is  unimpared  by  translation,  the 
most  literal  rendering  of  the  words  preserving  but  the  beauty  of 
their  poetic  arrangement." 


84  POETEY    AND   THE   BAKDS 


IV. THE    SPIRIT    OF    HEBREW    POETRY. 

Passing  now  from  the  style  to  the  subject-matter  of  Hebrew 
poetry,  we  may  notice  another  of  its  distinguishing  characteris- 
tics ;  and  that  is  its  sacreduess.  ParalleKsm  does  not  more  strongly 
mark  the  diction,  than  an  awful  unapproachable  spirit  of  holi- 
ness, the  thought  and  sentiment  of  all  the  bards  of  the  Bible  on  all 
subjects  and  on  all  occasions.  This  unbending  sanctity  of  purpose 
]iervades  all  their  writings,  great  and  small  ;  they  seem  to  stand 
always,  as  in  the  very  presence  of  Jehovah — the  high  priests  of 
his  temple,  the  interpreters  of  his  oracles,  the  minstrels  of  his 
glory,  the  worshippers  before  his  mercy-seat.  They  seem  never 
to  speak  but  with  an  inspiration  coming  down  from  the  eternal 
throne,  and  a  genius,  whose  lips  have  been  touched  with  a  live 
coal  from  heaven's  own  altars.  Tiie  muse  of  the  Bible,  in  all 
her  strains  and  in  all  her  flights,  has  no  other  purpose,  save 
that  of  serving  God — radoring  God.  Of  him  she  sings — towards 
him  she  aspires — in  him  she  delights  : 

"  Him  first,  him  last,  him  midst,  and  without  end." 

She  sees  and  adores  God  in  everything.  To  her  all  nature 
is  vocal  with  God,  from  the  burning  seraphim  of  Heaven,  down 
to  the  hyssop  on  the  wall  and  the  lily  of  the  valley.  He  is 
alike  the  burden  of  her  simplest  and  her  loftiest  song.  Her 
soul  was  panting  after  God — the  living  God,  when,  with  the 
mother  of  Samuel  and  the  mother  of  Jesus,  she  poured  forth 
her  humble  but  grateful  anthems  of  praise  ;  and  in  search  of 
that  God,  upbox'ne  on  the  wings  of  imagination,  she  soared  to 
the  highest  heavens,  with  Job  and  David  and  Isaiah. 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  85 

"  She  passed  the  flaming  bounds  of  space  and  time, 
The  azure  throne,  the  sapphire  blaze, 
"Where  angels  tremble  as  they  gaze." 

Says  Gilfillan,  "she  has  uo  atheistic  music,  like  Lucretius,  to 
be  played  off  on  the  dry  bones  of  a  dead  and  Godless  universe." 
Kor  has  she  any  talents  angel-bright,  like  the  scliool  of  Byron 
and  Moore,  to  prostitute  to  the  low  business  of  filling  the  world 
with  siren  songs  of  sensuality — the  base  cravings  of  a  morl)id 
imagination,  and  the  maniac  ravings  of  unbridled  passion.  Nor 
has  she  any  pent-up  fires  of  genius  to  burn  out  for  naught,  like 
Shelley,  E:itting  solitary  and  hopeless  on  the  dismal,  wretched, 
shores  of  that  gulf  of  chaos  and  old  night  into  which  infidelity 
and  skepticism  would  like  to  sink  the  world.  Ah  no  !  with 
her  all  is  life — all  is  beauty — all  is  hope — all  is  radiant  with 
glory — all  is  pregnant  with  immortality — all  is  vocal  with 
praise,  for  God  is  ever  with  her,  and  "  God  is  all  in  all." 

"  It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say,"  says  the  author  just  referred 
to,  "  that  the  poetic  genius  of  the  Hebrew  race  was  kindled  at 
the  fires  of  Sinai."  Nay,  that  is  hardly  enough  to  say.  We 
may  give  to  Hebrew  poesy  an  earlier  origin  than  Sinai's  fires. 
We  may  trace  her  nativity  back  to  the  garden  of  Eden.  She 
is  the  eldest  daughter  of  human  literature.  Her  genealogy 
ascends  to  Divine  inspiration.  To  the  language  of  man,  she 
holds  a  relation  akin  to  that  which  Eve  held  to  Adam.  Should 
we  impersonate  and  describe  her,  as  a  historical  character,  her 
heraldry  might  be  thus  recorded  :  Born  amid  the  bright 
visions  of  a  new-created  world,  when  the  morning  stars  sang 
together,  and  all  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy  :  trained  up 
from  infancy  in  the  knowledge  of  all  the  wonders  of  creation, 
of  providence,  of  prophecy  and  of  miracle  ;  fed,  now  on  angel's 
food  in  the  wilderness,  and  now  on  the  milk  and  honey  of  the 


8i&  POETRY    AND   THE   BARDS 

promised  land  ;  indoctrinated  into  the  sublime  mysteries  of 
that  law  which  God's  own  finger  wrote — she  received  a  nurture 
and  a  discipline,  such  as  formed  no  part  of  the  education  of  any 
other  national  poetic  muse.  During  all  her  early  years,  she 
played  familiar  with  the  giants  of  the  earth,  and  the  angels  of 
God.  The  rainbow  of  Noah,  the  Leviathan  and  Behemoth  of 
Job,  the  fiery  and  cloudy  pillars  of  the  Exodus,  the  thunders  and 
lightnings  of  Sinai,  the  waters  of  the  Deluge,  the  Red  Sea 
and  the  Jordan,  the  swords  of  Joshua,  and  Gideon,  the  timbrels 
of  Miriam  and  Deborah,  the  sun  over  Gibeon  and  the  moon  in 
the  valley  of  Ajalon — all  formed  material  for  her  young  thoughts. 
These  were  her  daily  meditations,  her  companions  and  instruct- 
ors, until  she  reached  her  full  orbed  maturity  of  strength  and 
beauty,  and  sat  down  upon  the  throne  of  David  and  Solomon,  to 
reign  forever  as  the  crowned  and  unrivalled  queen  of  song. 
And  from  that  ancient  hill  of  Zion — the  highest  mount  of  can- 
nonized  bards — that  throne  of  genius  and  of  inspiration  "  fast  by 
the  oracle  of  God,"  she  touched  her  harp — "the  harp,  the 
monarch  minstrel  swept,"  and  sounded  forth  to  heaven  and  earth 
a  strain  of  power  and  beauty  which  has  been  reverberating 
around  the  globe  till  David's  harp  grows  mightier  than  his 
throne — a  strain  of  glory  which  the  dwellers  in  the  vales  and 
on  the  mountain-tops  of  all  nations  have  heard  with  rapture,  or 
are  yet  to  hear. 

Hebrew  poetry  is  not  only  the  oldest  in  the  world,  but  from 
first  to  last  it  has  been  the  handmaid  of  religion.  Holiness 
to  the  Lord  has  been  impressed  on  every  line  of  it,  and  its 
whole  subject-matter  impregnated  with  the  hallowed  spirit  of 
truth  and  virtue.  "  This  poetry  "  says  Dr.  Kitto,  "  is  one  of 
the  many  utterances  of  that  which  was  unique  in  itself,  and 
peculiar  to  ancient  Israel.     And  just  as  all  the  noblest  powers 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  87 

and  contests  of  this  chosen  people,  were  cliiefly  directed  to  the 
one  object  of  striving  for  the  true  God  and  the  true  religion,  in 
like  manner,  their  poetry  also  had  no  other  way  of  becoming 
great  and  unique,  than  in  this  sole  tendency  to  the  sublime,  nor 
to  develop  all  its  powers  except  in  this  movement  after  God. 
Ancient  Hebrew  poetry  remained,  as  to  its  main  essence  an  in- 
terpreter of  those  high  thoughts  and  sublime  conceptions  which 
never  in  antiquity  excercised  such  an  influence  anywhere  else." 
On  this  point,  Gilfillan,  in  his  "Bards  of  the  Bible,"  makes 
the  following    appropriate  remarks — "The  Hebrew  poet  was 
nothing  if  not  sacred.     To  him  the  poetical  and  the  religious 
were  almost  the  same.     Song  was  the  form  instinctively  assumed 
by  all  the  higher  moods  of  his  worship.     He  was  not  surprised 
into  religious  emotion  and  poetry  by  the  influence  of  circum- 
stances, nor  stung  into  it  by  the  pressure  of  remorse.     He  was 
not  religious  only  when  the  organ  was  playing,  nor  most  so, 
like  Burns  and  Byron,  on  a  sunshiny  day.     Religion  was  with 
him  a  habitual  feeling,  and  from  the  joy  or  the  agony  of  that 
feeling  poetry  broke  out  irrepressibly.     To  him,  the  question, 
"  Arc  you  in  a  religious  mood  to-day  V  had  been  as  absurd  as 
'Are  you  alive  to-day  V  for  all  his  moods,  whether  high  as  hea- 
ven, or  low  as  hell,  whether  wretched  as  the  penitence  of  David, 
or  triumphant  as  tlie  rapture  of  Isaiah,  were  tinged  with  the 
religious  element.     From  God  he  sank,  or  up  to  God  he  soared. 
The  grand  theocracy  around  ruled  all  the  soul,  and  all  the  song 
of  the  Bard.     Wherever  he   stood,   under   the  silent   starry 
canopy,  or  in  the  congregation  of  the  faithful,  musing  in  solitary 
spots,  or  smiting  with  rebounding  hand  the  loud  cymbal,  his 
feeling  was — '  How  dreadful  is  this  place  !  this  is  none  other 
but  the   house  of   God,  and  this    the  very  gate   of  heaven  I' 
Hence  the  sacred  song  of  the  Hebrews  stands  alone  :  and  hence 


'S8  POETEY    AND   THE   BAEDS 

we  may  draw  the  deduction,  that  its  equal  we  shall  never  see 
again,  till  again  religion  enshrine  the  earth  as  it  once  enshrined 
the  Holy  Land." 

V. DEPARTMENTS    OF    HEBREW    POETRY. 

But  from  these  two  chief  characteristics  of  the  Poetry  of  the 
Bible — the  one  relating  to  its  style  or  diction  and  the  other  to 
its  spirit  and  subject-matter,  let  us  now  pass  on,  to  speak  of  its 
several  forms  or  departments.  All  poetry  may  be  comprised 
under  four  grand  divisions,  leaving  out  of  view  for  the  present 
many  subdivisions.  And  each  of  these  four  divisions,  though 
in  very  unequal  proportions,  is  represented  in  the  Bible. 

The  first,  which  is  also  the  earliest  in  the  order  of  time,  is 
the  Lyric  :  that  is,  poetry  to  be  sung  or  played,  for  the  most 
part  expressive  of  the  emotions  and  passions,  and  adapted  to 
the  music  of  instrument  or  voice.  This  includes  the  varied 
forms  of  ballad,  ode,  hymn  and  chorus.  Anacreon  and  Sappho 
among  the  Greeks,  Horace  among  the  Latins,  and  Burns  in 
modern  times,  excelled  in  this  department. 

The  second  class  is  the  Dramatic  :  that  is,  poetry  represent- 
ing human  life  in  all  its  phases,  and  accommodated  to  action — • 
poetry  not  to  be  sung  or  played,  but  to  be  acted  out  as  a  pic- 
ture of  real  life.  In  this  department  we  have  Sophocles  and 
Euripides  in  Greek  :  but  Shakspeare  is  the  most  distinguished 
example  in  the  annals  of  literature. 

The  third  kind  is  the  Didactic  or  Proverbial :  that  is,  poetry 
of  a  sententious  and  preceptive  cast,  addressed  to  the  feelings 
chiefly  through  the  judgment,  and  intended  to  convey  instruc- 
tion to  the  mind:  as,-  for  example,  in  Young's  "  Night  Thoughts." 
This  class  includes  all  descriptive  poetry,  not  comprised  in  the 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  ^ 

other  divisions :  such  as  Cowper's  "  Task "  and  Thomson's 
"  Seasons." 

The  fourth  division  is  the  Epic  or  Heroic  poem,  which  nar- 
rates or  recites,  in  elevated  style,  a  continuous  series  of  events 
or  actions,  true  or  fictitious,  historical  or  imaginary,  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  teach  some  great  moral,  or  celebrate  some  august 
personage:  as,  for  instance,  the  "Iliad"  of  Homer,  the 
"^neid"  of  Virgil,  the  "Jerusalem  Delivered"  of  Tasso,  the 
'*  Divina  Commedia  "  of  Dante  and  the  "  Paradise  Lost "  of  Milton. 

Now,  the  bards  of  the  Bible  have  surpassed  all  others,  in  at 
least  two  of  these  departments — the  Lyric  and  the  Didactic  : 
the  Lyric  as  represented  in  the  book  of  Psalms,  and  the  Didactic 
as  represented  in  the  book  of  Proverbs.  And  in  descriptive 
didactic  poetry,  we  might  regard  Job,  Isaiah,  and  the  prophets 
generally,  as  standing  at  the  head  of  the  list,  if  they  did  not  fall 
more  naturally  under  other  departments.  It  must  be  conceded, 
that  there  is  nothing  in  ancient  or  modern  literature,  which,  for 
proverbial,  sententious  wisdom,  and  deep  insight  into  human 
character,  can  be  put  in  comparison  with  the  poetry  of  Solomon. 
And  as  for  description,  where  will  you  find  any  description  of 
the  works  of  God  or  man — any  portraying  of  the  scenery  of  the 
heavens  and  the  earth,  which  can  equal  the  bold,  life-like  pic- 
tures of  Ezekiel,  Isaiah  and  Job.  At  the  distance  of  twenty  or 
thirty  centuries,  these  still  sliine  through  the  night  of  past  ages, 
as  stars  of  the  first  magnitude.  Upon  a  canvas,  whose  back- 
ground envelops  in  a  cloud  of  oblivion  all  contemporaneous 
products  of  uninspired  genius,  these  grand  delineations  of  the 
patriarch  of  Uz  still  stand  out  in  all  their  original  briglitness 
and  beauty,  as  if  they  had  been  painted  with  the  pencil  of  the 
sunlight,  from  "  colors  dipped  in  heaven." 

But  it  is  in  the  department  of  Lyric  poetry,  that  the  Hebrew 


90  POETRY   AND   THE   BARDS 

muse  attains  her  highest  triumphs,  and  stands  to  this  day  with- 
out a  rival  in  the  history  of  literature.  Whether  we  regard  the 
Psalms  as  national  ballads,  designed  to  inspire  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple with  patriotic  enthusiasm,  and  the  love  of  glory,  or  view 
them  as  religious  odes  adapted  to  raise  the  devotions  of  the 
nation  in  holy  gratitude  to  the  God  of  their  fathers — in  either 
case  they  stand  confessedly  unequalled,  unapproached  by  the 
odes  or  ballads  of  any  other  age  or  nation.  In  the  chaste  and 
simple  grandeur  of  their  diction  and  imagery,  in  the  mingled 
sublimity  and  pathos  of  their  sentiment,  in  the  stern  and  imma- 
culate purity  of  their  moral  tone,  in  the  deep,  abiding  impres- 
sion which  they  made  upon  the  whole  Israelitish  mind  through 
centuries  of  prosperity  and  adversity,  and  in  the  untold 
influence  which  they  have  exercised  over  every  nation  of  the 
civilized  world  down  to  the  present  day,  they  never  had  any 
fair  competitor,  much  less  any  equal. 

In  the  other  two  departments  of  poetry — the  Dramatic  and 
the  Epic — it  is  aclinowledged,  that  the  bards  of  the  Bible  have 
not  given  us  the  same  finished  models.  The  composition  of  the 
Drama  and  the  Epic,  requiring  more  art  and  invention  than 
the  others,  was  uncongenial  to  the  truth-loving  spirit  of  Hebrew 
poesy.  In  these,  the  muses  of  Greece  and  Rome  and  all  the 
great  modern  nations  attained  their  highest  flight  and  sung  their 
noblest,  sweetest  song.  But  the  muse  of  the  Bible,  being  at 
once  the  early  expounder  of  nature,  when  she  appeared  "  unin- 
debted to  the  tricks  of  art,"  and  the  inspired  oracle  of  God  to 
teach  man  wisdom,  chose  the  ballad  and  the  proverb,  as  her 
most  appropriate  vehicles  :  and  accordingly  we  find  no  great 
Epic,  like  Milton's,  nor  finished  Dramas,  like  Shakspeare's. 

The  fictitious  history  or  novel,  which  constitutes  the  basis  of 
the  great  Epic,  and  the  stage,  with  all  its  cumbrous  artistic 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  91 

machinerv,  constitating  the  basis  of  the  Drama,  were  things 
unknown  among  the  Jews,  until  they  were  borrowed  from  the 
Romans,  and  introduced  by  that  half  pagan,  Herod  the  Great. 
The  muse  of  Hebrew  poesy  was  always  too  truthful  and  holy  to 
introduce  anything  like  the  stage,  or  anything  nearer  the  novel 
than  a  simple  parable  or  allegory 

Still  there  is  one  important  consideration,  in  reference  to  this 
point,  which  must  not  be  overlooked.  Though  the  Bible  con- 
tains no  great  epic,  like  the  "  Iliad,"  and  no  great  drama,  like 
"  King  Lear  "  or  "  Hamlet,"  still  it  contains  much  noble  poetry 
of  an  Epic  and  Dramatic  character.  It  is  full  of  the  germs — 
the  seed-thoughts  of  great  epics  and  dramas.  It  gives  us  short 
epics,  which  recite  a  true  history  and  delineate  a  real  hero.  It 
sets  before  us  sublime  dramas,  written  for  no  stage  but  the 
stage  of  real  life,  and  arranged  for  the  scenery  of  no  theatre, 
but  the  grand  theatre  of  heaven  and  earth  and  hell. 

For  example,  it  is  generally  agreed  amongst  Bible  critics, 
that  the  "  Canticles,"  or  "  Song  of  Solomon,"  whilst  it  has  all 
the  elements  of  a  lyric  and  pastoral  poem,  is  also  a  drama,  com- 
plete even  to  the  chorus,  in  all  its  parts,  and  intended  to 
represent  vividly  the  relation  between  Christ  and  his  beauteous 
Bride  the  Church,  under  the  imagery  of  a  recently  married 
husband  and  wife.  As  to  the  poetical  character  of  the  book 
of  Job,  there  has  been  a  diversity  of  opinions  among  eminent 
judges.  It  is  said  that  Daniel  Webster  regarded  it  as  an 
epic — the  most  magnificient  to  be  found  in  human  literature. 
But  the  most  commonly  received  opinion,  amongBiblical  scholars, 
is,  that  it  is  more  of  a  drama  than  an  epic.  Whilst  it  is  in 
many  respects  a  didactic  descriptive  poem,  and  whilst  it  con- 
tains many  of  the  essential  elements  of  an  epic  poem,  it  seems 
to  be  more  accurately  described  as  a  historical  drama — the 


92  POETRY    AND   THE   BARDS 

oldest  and  the  sublimest  ever  written,  embracing  a  panoram? 
of  universal  nature,  material  and  spiritual,  animate  and  inani- 
mate, ranging  from  arch-angel  fallen  to  the  Deity,  and  contain- 
ing a  grand  dialogue  between  Satan,  Man  and  God,  whose 
scenes  are  laid  alternately  in  heaven  and  earth,  whose  denoue- 
ment is  the  vindication  of  the  patriarch  by  the  intervention  of 
Jehovah,  and  whose  great  moral  design  is  to  "  assert  eternal 
Providence,  and  justify  the  ways  of  God  to  men." 

Be  this  as  it  may  ;  Miriam's  song  at  the  Red  Sea,  and  Debo- 
rah's war-song,  contain  as  in  a  nutshell  the  elements  of  epic 
poems,  recounting  real  and  heroic  deeds.  Moses'  Farewell  to 
Israel  is  another  and  longer  epic,  and  might  be  expanded  even 
now  into  a  grand  national  epic,  far  more  wonderful  and  glorious 
than  the  ^aeii  of  Virgil.  Many  of  the  Psalms,  in  imitation  of 
this  address,  are  little  epic  poems,  celebrating  the  mighty  acts 
of  Jehovah,  wlien  he  led  his  people  through  the  waters  and  the 
wilderness.  And  what  shall  we  say  of  the  later  prophecies  of 
Isaiah,  running  from  the  fortieth  chapter  to  the  end  of  the  book 
in  one  unbrokenand  exalted  strain?  What  shall  we  call  this, 
but  one  grand  prophetic  epic,  whose  suffering  but  conquering  hero 
is  the  Messiah  of  Israel,  whose  story  is  the  ever  onward  progress 
of  Christianity,  and  whose  sublime  moral  climax  is  the  millen- 
nial glory  of  a  world,  redeemed,  purified,  and  prepared  for  God  ? 

^  VI. THE    INFLUENCE    OF    HEBREW    POETRY. 

If,  however,  we  would  do  full  justice  to  the  Poetry  of  the 
Bible,  we  must  measure  it,  not  merely  by  what  it  has  done 
directly  itself,  but  by  what  it  has  enabled  others  to  do  ;  we 
must  take  into  consideration  not  only  its  own  finished  produc- 
tions, but  also  the  materials  it  has  furnished,  and  the  vast 


OF    THE    BIBLE.  93 

influence  it  has  thus  exerted  upon  the  productions  of  the 
world's  genius,  whose  fires,  for  two  thousand  years,  have  been 
kindled  at  its  altars.  The  Bible,  as  we  have  seen,  not  only 
contains  the  highest  models  of  lyric  and  didactic  poetry,  and 
also  no  mean  spechnens  both  of  dramatic  and  epic  poetry;  but, 
what  is  most  important  to  observe,  it  has  furnished  the  mate- 
rial, of  fact,  of  sentiment  and  of  doctrine,  out  of  which  the 
greatest  epic  poems  of  modern  times  have  been  framed.  Their 
seed  thoughts,  their  characters,  their  imagery,  their  illustrations, 
their  grand  moral,  their  religious  basis,  their  whole  conception, 
have  been  borrowed  from,  or  suggested  by  the  Bible.  In  what- 
ever the  moderns  have  differed  from,  or  excelled  the  ancients 
in  poetry,  it  is  the  Bible  that  has  helped  them  to  the  distinc- 
tion and  enabled  them  -to  achieve  the  victory.  If  you 
could  take  out  of  the  literature  of  modern  nations,  all 
that  the  Bible  has  put  into  it,  there  would  not  be  a  shred 
of  glory  left,  on  which  to  claim  preeminence  over  clas- 
sical antiquity.  And  the  same  is  true  of  our  science,  our 
religion,  and  civilization,  as  well  as  our  poetry.  If  then  Dante, 
and  Tasso,  and  Milton  have  written  grander  epics  than  Moses, 
David,  and  Isaiah,  it  is  by  the  help  of  the  materials  which  the 
Bible  has  put  into  their  hands,  that  they  have  thus  been  able 
to  surpass  the  Bible,  whilst  they  surpass  the  ancient  classical 
authors.  Thus  fostered  by  the  Bible,  they  may  virtually  be 
claimed  as  bards  of  the  Bible.  Who  would  ever  have  heard  of 
"Paradise  Lost"  or  "  Paradise  Regained,"  had  there  been  no 
Bible  ?  Where  else  could  Milton's  muse  have  found  such  food 
for  thought,  and  such  themes  for  inspiration  ?  And  what  are 
these  poems,  after  all,  but  a  reproduction,  and  a  Hberal  para- 
phrase, and  a  new  translation  of  the  Bible,  couched  ia 
harmonious  immortal  numbers  ? 


94:  POETRY    AND    THE    BARDS 

Some  critics  have  entertained  the  opinion,  that  there  can 
never  be  another  great  epic  poem  written :  never  shall  another 
Homer  or  another  Milton  sing,  because  all  original  themes  are 
exhausted,  and  all  heroic  materials  used  up.  We  are  inclined  to 
think  otherwise.  Far  down  the  course  of  time,  it  may  be,  in 
the  golden  age  of  millennial  glory,  when  the  knowledge  of  the 
Lord  shall  fill  the  world,  and  all  nations  walk  in  the  light  of 
his  countenance,  when  the  mysteries  of  the  past  shall  have  been 
solved,  and  all  the  ways  of  providence  fully  vindicated,  then 
shall  the  last  grand  epic  of  Redemption  be  sung  in  sweeter  and 
sublimer  strains  than  any  that  have  yet  been  heard.  But  mark 
it  now,  and  write  it  as  a  memorial  for  the  future  ;  whenever 
that  day  of  glory  shall  dawn  upon  the  earth — whenever  that 
loftier  Milton  shall  arise,  and  that  diviner  minstrel  than  he  of 
Chios,  shall  tune  his  harp  for  the  last  great  effort  of  poetic  genius, 
it  will  be  this  Bible  which  shall  inspire  his  muse,  and  furnish 
both  the  material  and  the  moral  of  his  song. 

It  has  been  said  that,  "  Homer  gave  a  mythology  to  antiquity^ 
and  the  fine  arts  to  all  the  modern  nations,"  so  that,  for  nearly 
three  thousand  years,  the  world  has  only  been  borrowing  from 
his  pages,  as  the  great  storehouse  of  genius.  In  like  manner 
the  Bible  has  given  to  the  world  a  religion,  and  along  with  that 
religion,  an  inexhaustible  treasury  of  historic  fact,  of  poetic 
imagery,  and  of  sublime  conception,  which  the  great  masters  of 
all  ages  have  been  expanding  and  reproducing,  with  endless 
variety,  in  every  walk  of  art  and  literature.  Says  an  eminent 
scholar,  in  "  Kitto's  Cyclopaedia  :"  "  Of  all  intellectual,  literary, 
and  moral  treasures,  the  Bible  is  incomparably  the  richest. 
Even  for  those  forms  of  poetry  in  which  it  is  defective,  it  pre- 
sents the  richest  materials.  Moses,  has  not,  as  some  have 
dreamed,  left  us  an  epic  poem  :  but  he  has  supplied  the  mate- 


OF   THE    BIBLE.  95 

rials,  out  of  which  the  "  Paradise  Lost "  was  created.  Milton's 
sternly  sublime  drama  of  "  Samson  Agonistes,"  is  constructed 
from  a  few  materials  found  in  a  chapter  or  two,  which  relate 
to  the  least  cultivated  period  of  the  Hebrew  Republic.  Indeed 
most  of  the  great  poets,  even  of  modern  days,  from  Tasso  down 
to  Byron  ;  all  the  great  musicians  and  nearly  all  the  great  paint- 
ers, have  drawn  their  best  and  highest  inspirations  from  the 
Bible.  This  is  a  fact,  as  creditable  to  religion  as  it  is  impor- 
tant to  literature,  of  which  he  who  is  fully  aware  will  not 
easily  be  turned  aside  from  faith  to  infidelity,  by  the  shallow 
sarcasms  of  a  Voltaire,  or  the  low  ribaldry  of  a  Paine.  That 
book,  which  has  led  civilization,  and  formed  the  noblest  minds 
of  our  race,  is  not  destined  to  be  disowned  for  a  few  real  or 
apparent  chronological  inaccuracies  ;  or  because  it  presents  states 
of  society  and  modes  of  thought,  the  very  existence  of  which, 
however  half-witted  unbelief  may  object,  is  the  best  pledge  of 
its  reality  and  truth." 

Dr.  Spring,  in  his  "  Obligations  of  the  World  to  the  Bible," 
has  some  admirable  remarks  on  the  same  point :  "  There  is 
not  a  finer  character,  nor  a  finer  description  in  all  the  works 
of  Walter  Scott,  than  that  of  Rebekah  in  Ivanhoe.  And  who 
does  not  see,  that  it  owes  its  excellence  to  the  Bible  ?  Shak- 
speare,  Byron  and  Southey  are  not  a  little  indebted  for  some 
of  their  best  scenes  and  inspirations  to  the  same  source."  And 
then  he  goes  on  to  point  out  the  parallels,  between  Macbeth  and 
Ahab,  Lady  Macbeth  and  Jezebel,  Jeremiah's  Lamentations 
over  Jerusalem  and  Byron's  apostrophe  to  Rome  as  the  Niobe  of 
nations,  his  ode  to  Napoleon,  and  Isaiah's  ode  on  the  fall  of  the 
King  of  Babylon  ;  and  other  parallels,  showing  how  greatly 
even  profane  and  sometimes  unbelieving  writers  are  indebted  to 
the  book  of  God. 


96  POETRY    AND   THE   BARDS 


VII. — THE   WRITERS    OF    HEBREW   POETRY. 

But  it  is  time  for  us  to  pass  to  another  topic.  From  these 
several  departments  of  Hebrew  poesy — lyric,  didactic,  drama- 
tic, and  epic — containing  either  finished  poems,  or  the  materials 
for  great  poems  of  each  class,  let  us  turn  now  to  take  a  brief 
survey  of  its  several  authors — the  bards  themselves.  Thus 
shall  we  have  at  one  view  the  whole  field  of  Bible  poetry,  in  its 
style,  sentiment,  influence,  subjects,  forms  and  authors. 

The  whole  number  of  persons  mentioned  in  the  Bible,  as 
having-  written  or  spoken  in  poetry  of  their  own  composition,  and 
therefore  entitled  to  the  name  of  bard,  is  about  thirty.  Of  these 
the  great  majority  are  the  authors  of  short  odes,  or  occasion- 
al pieces,  minor  poems  and  prophecies.  The  distinguished  bards 
of  the  Bible  however,  that  give  character  to  its  poetry  and  tower 
above  all  their  compeers,  by  the  length  and  dignity  of  their 
productions,  are  the  seven  following  :  Moses,  Job,  David,  Solo- 
man,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  and  Ezekiel.  For  although  Moses 
did  not  write  much  poetry — indeed  not  so  much  as  some  of  the 
minor  prophets,  yet,  as  he  stood  for  many  generations,  almost 
the  only  bard  of  Israel,  he  deserves  a  place  amongst  the  distin- 
guished seven. 

It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed,  that  those  whom  we  here 
rank  as  the  less  distinguished,  are  at  all  inferior  in  poetic  ge- 
nius to  the  others.  So  far  from  it  are  they,  that  we  find  not  un- 
frequently  in  these  little  poems,  or  fragments  of  poems,  passages 
of  sublimity,  power  and  pathos,  equal  to  anything  in  the  Bible 
Such  for  , example,  are  some  of  the  Psalms  of  Asaj^h,  such  are 
many  parts  of  Hosea,  Joel,  Amos,  Nahum  and  Micah.     Such 


OK    THE    BIBLE.  97 

especially  are  the  war-song  of  Deborah  and  the  awfully  sublime 
prayer  or  ode  of  Habakkuk. 

Let  us  pause  a  moment  to  consider  these  two,  as  specimens 
from  the  minor  poets.  In  Deborah,  the  martial  spirit  of  the 
Hebrew  race  seems  to  have  found  its  second  grand  utterance  in 
song  ;  that  of  Moses  at  the  Eed  Sea  being  the  first.  Never 
did  the  female  heart  in  any  land  or  in  any  age,  burn  with 
brighter  and  fiercer  fires  of  patriotic  enthusiasm  and  religious 
devotion.  She  was  the  very  incarnation  of  the  heroic  spirit- 
The  famous  Marseilles  Hymn  of  Liberty  sounds  dull  and  tame, 
placed  beside  the  trumpet-tongued  notes  of  her  song.  With  an 
epic  and  a  tragic  power,  w^hich  in  its  condensation  almost  defies 
comparison,  she  sets  the  battle  in  array  before  us,  as  though  we 
heard  the  tramping  of  its  mighty  hosts,  and  mingled  in  all  its 
din  and  fury.  In  recounting  this  triumph  of  Jehovah  over  the 
enemies  of  her  country,  she  summons  all  creation,  not  only  to 
share  in  the  shouts  of  victory,  but  to  rush  into  the  thickest  of 
the  fight,  as  if  the  "  curse  of  Meroz  "  should  rest  upon  every 
soul  that  refused  to  take  part  in  the  conflict. 

As  the  poem  opens,  we  seem  to  hear  the  very  w^atchword  and 
battle-cry  of  the  advancing  array,  in  the  apostrophic  words  : — 

"  Arouse  thee !  arouse  thee  !  Deborah  ! 
Awake !  awake !  give  a  song  of  triumph  ! 
Arise,  Barak !  and  lead  thy  captivity  captive, 
Thou  son  of  Abinoam  !" 

And  then  suddenly,  princes  and  people,  governors  and  nobles, 
horses  and  mighty  ones,  tribe  after  tribe  in  successive  onsets, 
rush  to  the  high  places  of  the  field,  "  to  the  help  of  the  Lord, 
the  help  of  the  Lord  against  the  mighty."  Inanimate  nature 
seems  to  participate  in  the  contest.     "  The  stars  in  their  courses 

5 


98  POETRY    AND    THE   BARDS 

figlit  from  heaven  against  Sisera."  "  The  river  Kishon,  that, 
ancient  river,  Kishon  sweeps  them  away,"  as  it  bears  down  the 
invaders  of  Israel  in  carnage  to  the  sea  :  whilst  above  the 
din  and  conflict  of  the  conquering  and  the  flying  hosts,  we  seem 
to  hear  the  voice  of  the  heroic  prophet-bard,  who  had  herself 
been  the  chief  human  agent  in  raising  all  this  storm,  crying—"  0 
my  soul  I  thou  hast  trodden  down  strength  !" 

What  is  Campbell's  '' Hohenlinden,"  or  Scott's  "Flodden 
Field  "  or  any  battle  scene,  of  equal  length,  in  Homer  and  Vir- 
gil, compared  with  this  impassioned  dramatic  description  ?  And 
yet  perhaps  there  are  many  readers  and  admirers  of  fine  poetry, 
who  have  not  discovered  that  there  is  any  sublime  poetry  in 
the  Bible.  Now  if  you  will  study  carefully  the  fifth  chapter  of 
the  Book  of  Judges,  with  the  aid  of  all  the  translations  you 
can  find,  you  may  come  to  the  conclusion,  that  there  is  not,  in 
the  works  of  literature,  so  far  as  you  have  explored  them,  a 
single  martial  ode  equal  to  Deborah's. 

In  the  book  of  Habakkuk  we  have  another  ode  equally 
sublime,  but  of  an  entirely  different  character.  It  is  a  prayer, 
and  at  the  same  time  a  descriptive  ode  of  very  peculiar  charac- 
ter. It  represents  Jehovah  as  seen  in  history.  It  describes 
the  God  of  providence,  as  a  conquering  hero,  ever  marching 
onward,  with  invincible  power,  through  the  whole  cycle  of 
Jewish  history,  from  the  promulgation  of  the  law  at  Mount 
Sinai,  to  the  prophet's  own  times.  Consequently  its  materials 
of  facts  and  imagery  are  derived,  not  from  any  particular  event 
or  date,  but  from  the  events  of  some  thousand  years.  The 
historic  bard  looks  out  from  his  lonely  watch-tower — he  lifts 
his  heart  to  heaven  in  holy  midnight  meditations — he  casts  his 
thoughts  back  into  the  shadowy  distance  of  the  past — he 
groups  together  the  prominent  signs  and  wonders  of  a  thousand 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  99 

years — with  quiTeriDg  fingers  he  sweeps  every  chord  known  to 
the  diapason  of  David's  harp,  and  prepares  for  his  last  grand 
anthem  to  Jehovah's  glory.  Imagine,  if  you  can,  a  staff  and  a 
scale,  and  an  anthem,  whose  key-note  should  be  the  deep  heaving 
voice  of  the  sea,  whose  tenor  the  unceasing  roar  of  the  thunder, 
whose  bass  the  rumbling  earthquake,  whose  harmonious  move- 
ment the  music  of  the  spheres,  while  the  whirlwind  and  the 
cataract,  the  volcano  and  the  waterspout  swell  the  mighty 
chorus — and  you  have  the  only  adequate  musical  expression  for 
the  prophet's  words  and  emotions  in  the  following  inspired  and 
awe-inspiring  ode,  which  we  give  in  our  common  version, 
except  in  a  few  lines  taken  from  Herder's  translation  : 

God  came  from  Teman, 

And  the  Holy  One  from  Mount  Paran.     Selah. 

His  glory  covered  the  heavens, 

And  the  earth  was  full  of  his  praise. 

His  brightness  was  like  the  sun, 

And  from  his  hand  the  rays  shot  forth  ; 

And  there  was  the  hiding  of  his  power. 

Before  him  went  the  pestilence, 

And  burning  coals  went  forth  at  his  feet. 

He  stood,  and  measured  the  earth ; 

He  beheld,  and  drove  asunder  the  nations  ; 

And  the  everlasting  mountains  were  scattered ; 

The  perpetual  hills  did  bow  ; 

His  ways  are  everlasting. 

I  saw  the  tents  of  Cushan  in  affliction  ; 

The  curtains  of  the  land  of  Midian  did  tremble. 

"Was  the  Lord  displeased  against  the  rivers  ? 

Was  thine  anger  against  the  rivers  ? 

Was  thy  wrath  against  the  sea  ? 

That  thou  didst  ride  upon  thy  horses, 

And  thv  chariots  of  salvation? 


IOC  POETRY    AND    THE    BAKD8 

Thou  (Irewest  forth  thy  bow 
Multiplying  seven-fold  thine  arrows.     Selah. 
Thou  didst  cleave  the  earth  with  rivers. 
The  mountains  saw  thee,  and  they  trembled ; 
The  overflowing  of  the  waters  passed  by  ; 
The  deep  uttered  his  voice, 
And  lifted  up  his  hands  on  high. 
The  sun  and  moon  stood  still  in  their  habitation  ; 
At  the  light  of  thine  arrows  they  went, 
And  at  tlie  shining  of  thy  glittering  spear. 
Thou  didst  march  through  the  land  in  indignation. 
Thou  didst  thresh  the  heathen  in  anger. 
Thou  Aventcst  forth  for  the  salvation  of  thy  people, 
Even  for  salvation  with  thine  anointed. 
Thou  didst  smite  the  top  from  the  house  of  the  wicked, 
And  lay  bare  the  foundation  even  to  the  rock.     Selah. 
Thou  piercedst  the  head  of  the  lea,der  of  their  ranks. 
They  came  out  as  a  whirlwind  to  scatter  me; 
Their  rejoicing  was  to  devour  the  poor  secretly. 
Thou  didst  walk  through  the  sea  with  thy  horses, 
Through  the  heap  of  great  waters." 

What  is  Gray's  "  Elegy,"  or  Pope's  "  Universal  Hymn,'^  or 
Coleridge's  sunrise  hymn  in  the  vale  of  Chamouny,  sublime  as  it 
is,  compared  with  this  ?  Each  sentence  here  is  a  picture  to  be 
studied.  Each  line  is  a  new  door  for  the  imagination,  opening 
into  the  third  heavens  of  sublimity.  You  may  search  the 
annals  of  literature,  ancient  and  modern,  and  if  you  can  find 
anything  in  the  same  compass,  equal  to  the  splendid  imagery 
and  majestic  movement  of  this  divine  ode,  we  will  acknowledge; 
for  the  first  time,  that  the  Bible  is  not  the  highest  standard  of 
taste  and  genius,  and  of  the  divine  art  of  poesy. 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  101 


VIII. THE    SEVEN    GREATER    BARDS    Or"    THE    BIBLE 

But  if  the  superioity  of  the  Bible  can  be  maintained  with 
regard  to  these,  its  minor  bards,  what  shall  we  say  of  those 
immortal  seven  who  have  been  called  the  "giant  angels  of 
Hebrew  song  ?"  We  cannot  speak  of  all  of  them  now,  nor  of  any 
of  them  at  much  length.  Of  three  out  of  the  seven,  however, 
we  must  give  a  brief  and  passing  sketch  for  the  completeness  of 
our  subject.  These  are  Moses,  Job,  and  David.  The  other 
four,  Solomon,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  and  Ezekiel,  will  come  before 
ns,  hereafter,  in  other  relations. 

To  Moses  belongs  the  authorship  of  three  magnificent 
poems — and  these  almost  the  earliest  products  of  the  poetic 
muse.  His  fame,  as  the  first  of  historians,  is  entwined  with 
the  graceful  garlands  of  virgin  poesy.  The  first  is  that  "  Psalm 
of  Moses,  the  man  of  God,"  on  the  frailty  of  human  life,  and 
the  care  of  Diviue  providence — the  90 ch  in  the  collection — which 
stands,  between  the  two  great  divisions  of  the  book,  as  its 
central  and  most  ancient  column.  "This"  says  Dr.  J.  A. 
Alexander,  "  may  be  regarded  as  the  heart  or  centre  of  the 
whole  collection,  and  indeed,  as  the  model  upon  which,  even 
David,  the  sweet  psalmist  of  Israel,  formed  that  glorious  body 
of  psalmodic  literature  or  hymnology,  which,  with  its  later  but 
inspired  and  authoritative  imitations,  constitutes  the  present 
Book  of  Psalms."  The  second  is  that  sublime  song  of  deliver- 
ance and  triumph,  which  was  sung  at  the  Red  Sea,  when  Israel 
saw  the  Egyptians  "  sink  like  lead  in  the  mighty  waters  " — 
when  Miriam  and  all  the  women  of  Israel,  sounding  loud  their 
timbrels  over  Egyjit's  dark  sea,  responded  in  the  lofty  chorus 
which  the  men  had  raised  : 


102  POETRY    AND    THE    BARDS 

"  Sing  ye  to  the  Lord,  for  he  hath  tnumphed  gloriously, 
The  horse  and  his  rider  hath  he  thrown  into  tlic  sea." 

The  third  and  longest  poem  of  Moses  is  his  valedictory  song*, 
delivered  to  the  chosen  people  a  little  before  his  death,  and 
recorded  at  the  close  of  the  book  of  Deuteronomy.  It  openg 
with  the  following  impassioned,  and  beautiful  invocation  : 

"Give  ear,  0  ye  heavens,  and  I  will  speak: 
And  hear,  0  earth,  the  words  of  my  mouth. 
My  doctrine  shall  drop  as  the  rain, 
My  speech  shall  distill  as  the  dew. 
As  the  small  rain  upon  the  tender  herb. 
And  as  the  showers  upon  the  grass," 

And  then,  after  recounting  the  glories  of  Israel,  and  the 
wonderful  works  of  Jehovah,  the  manifold  blessing  of  allegiance, 
and  the  fearful  consequences  of  apostasy,  he  closes  with  au 
apostrophe  in  perfect  keeping  v/ith  the  introduction  : 

"  Rejoice,  0  ye  nations  with  his  people: 
For  he  will  avenge  the  blood  of  his  servants, 
And  will  render  vengeance  to  his  adversaries, 
And  will  be  merciful  to  his  land  and  to  his  people." 

But  besides  these  productions  of  his  own  muse,  Moses  has 
also  recorded  for  us,  what  may  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  of  all  the  curiosities  of  literature.  It  is  the  song  of 
Lamech  to  his  wives,  Adah  and  Zillah,  in  the  fourth  chapter  of 
Genesis.  This  is  the  only  piece  of  antediluvian  poetry  in  exist- 
ence, being  beyond  all  comparison  the  oldest  in  the  world, 
unless  we  regard  the  prophecy  of  Enoch  in  the  epistle  of  Jude 
as  also  poetic.  It  is  worthy  of  notice,  that  the  two  pieces 
belong  to  the  very  same  epoch.     For  Enoch,  the  author  of  the 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  103 

prophecy,  was  the  seventh  from  Adam  through  the  line  of  Seth, 
while  Lamech,  the  author  of  the  song,  was  also  the  seventh 
from  Adam  through  the  line  of  Cain.  One  of  Lamech's  sons, 
we  are  told,  was  the  "  father  of  such  as  handle  the  harp  and 
organ  :"  and  thus,  most  appropriately,  we  find  the  first  mention 
of  instrumental  music,  in  immediate  connection  with  the  first 
notice  of  poetry  in  the  world.  The  song  of  Lamech  seems  to 
be  a  fragment,  taken  by  Moses  probably  from  a  longer  poem, 
which  had  been  handed  down  to  his  times  by  tradition  :  just 
as  the  prophecy  of  Enoch  must  have  come  down  from  the  same 
a^e  to  the  far  more  remote  days  of  St,  Jude. 

Herder,  in  his  "  Spirit  of  Hebrew  Poetry,"  calls  it  the  song 
of  the  sword,  and  thinks  it  was  composed  and  sung  by  Lamech, 
on  the  invention  of  that  weapon.  He  deems  it  descriptive,  not 
of  what  Lamech  had  done,  but  of  what  he  might  do,  to  his  foes, 
with  this  newly  invented  and  formidable  weapon.  He  trans- 
lates it  thus  : 

"Ye  wives  of  Lamech,  hear,  my  voice 

And  hearken  to  my  speech. 

I  slew  a  man  who  wounded  me, 

A  youth,  who  smote  me  with  a  blow ; 

If  Cain  shall  be  seven  times  avenged, 

Then  Lamech  seventy  times  seven," 

If  this  be  the  correct  view,  it  would  really  seem  that  Lamech's 
song  was  no  empty  boast,  but  was  almost  prophetic  of  what  the 
sword  has  done  in  the  world.  Herder  regards  it  as  the  most 
ancient  of  poems,  proving  to  him  that  lyric  poetry  and  music 
arose  in  the  same  age,  and  indeed  in  the  same  family,  and  as 
mother  and  daughter  they  have  been  joined  togetiicr  ever  since. 
But  Job  !  what  shall  we  say  of  Job — the  Leviathan  of 
Hebrew  song — the  patriarch  of  the  age  of  poesy — the  most 


104  POETRY    AND   THE    BARDS 

venerable  and  hoary  of  all  the  bards  of  the  Bible,  compared 
with  whom  Milton,  in  his  old  age  and  blindness,  was  but  as  a 
boy  of  yesterday  !  As  he  rises  up  to  our  imagination  from  the 
depths  of  antiquity,  we  think  of  a  stately  and  solitary  palm  tree 
on  the  border  of  some  vast  desert,  or  of  some  lone  tower  of 
strength  and  beauty  standing  in  the  midst  of  mouldering  ruins, 
or  of  mount  Sinai  towering  in  stern  grandeur  above  the  wilder- 
ness. Dr.  Kitto  says  "  the  book  of  Job,  belongs  to  no  class  • 
it  is  a  class  by  itself  ;  there  is  none  like  it  in  ancient  or  modern 
literature."  It  is  impossible  that  anything  in  literature  should 
be  more  sublime  than  the  book  of  Job  ;  because  it  is  impossibie 
to  find  a  sublimer  theme  than  God  iu  nature,  and  the  book  of 
Job  is  alike  true  to  God  and  true  to  nature  in  her  sublimest 
moods. 

We  will,  however,  pass  over  all  its  grand  and  glowing 
descriptions  of  the  mighty  works  of  God,  as  seen  in  heaven  and 
earth,  sea  and  sky  ;  and  present  you  with  a  single  passage  of 
a  dilTcrent  kind — a  passage  which  we  regard  as  a  perfect  model 
of  the  beautiful — a  passage  blending  at  once  the  beauties  of 
classic  diction,  of  poetic  imagery,  and  of  moral  sentiment,  which 
are  the  highest  elements  of  beauty  in  a  poem.  It  is  the  por- 
traiture of  the  Patriarch's  own  character  in  the  days  of  his 
prosperity,  when  he  had  the  testimony  of  the  Almighty  that 
there  was  '*  none  like  him  in  the  earth,"  "  a  perfect  man  and 
an  upright,  one  who  feared  God  and  eschewed  evil."  It  is  re- 
markable to  find  such  a  delineation  of  character — abounding  in 
the  most  delicate  and  exquisite  touches  of  pathos  and  beauty — 
in  a  poet,  whose  muse  is  accustomed  to  soar  on  eagle's  wings, 
above  the  clouds,  to  gaze  on  dazzling  grandeur  with  an  eagle's 
eye,  and  to  claim  the  highest  heaven  of  sublimity  as  her  native 
home.     You  will  observe,  too,  how  the  poetry  shines  out  through 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  105 

the  veil  of  a  prose  translation,  for  we  give  it  in  the  words  ot 
our  common  version  : 

'*  Oh  that  I  were  as  in  months  past, 
As  in  the  days  when  God  preserved  me  ; 
When  his  candle  shined  upon  my  head, 
And  by  his  light  I  walked  through  darkness ; 
As  I  was  in  the  days  of  my  youth, 
Wlien  the  secret  of  God  was  upon  my  tabernacle: 
When  the  Almighty  was  yet  with  me. 
When  my  children  were  about  me  ; 
When  I  washed  my  steps  with  butter. 
And  the  rock  poured  me  out  rivers  of  oil. 

"  When  I  went  out  to  the  gate  through  th%  city, 
When  I  prepared  ray  seat  in  the  street ; 
The  young  men  saw  me  and  hid  themselvea, 
And  the  aged  arose  and  stood  up. 
The  princes  refrained  from  talking. 
And  laid  their  hand  upon  their  mouth ; 
The  nobles  held  their  peace 

And  their  tongue  cleaved  to  the  roof  of  their  mouth. 
When  the  ear  heard  me,  then  it  blessed  me ; 
And  when  the  eye  saw  me,  it  gave  witness  to  me. 

"  Because  I  delivered  the  poor  that  cried — 
The  fatherless  that  had  none  to  help  him. 
The  blessing  of  him  that  was  ready  to  perish  came  upon  mc; 
And  I  caused  the  widow's  heart  to  sing  for  joy, 
I  put  on  righteousness  and  it  clothed  me  ; 
My  judgment  was  as  a  robe  and  a  diadem. 
I  was  eyes  to  the  blind. 
And  feet  was  I  to  the  lame. 
I  was  a  father  to  the  poor. 

And  the  cause  which  I  knew  not  I  searched  oat. 
And  I  brake  the  jaws  of  the  wicked, 
And  plucked  the  spoil  out  of  his  teeth. 


106  POETKT   AND   THE   BARBS 

"  Then  I  said  I  shall  die  in  my  nest, 
And  I  shall  multiply  my  days  as  the  sand. 
My  root  was  spread  out  by  the  waters, 
And  the  dew  lay  all  night  upon  my  branch. 
My  glory  was  fresh  within  me. 
And  my  bow  was  renewed  in  my  hand. 
Unto  me  men  gave  ear  and  waited, 
And  kept  silence  at  my  counsel. 
After  my  words  they  spake  not  again ; 
And  my  speech  dropped  upon  them ; 
And  they  waited  for  me  as  for  the  rain. 
They  opened  their  mouth  wide  as  for  the  latter  rain. 
If  I  laughed  on  them,  they  believed  it  not. 
And  the^iglit  of  my  countenance  they  cast  not  down. 
I  chose  out  their  way  and  sat  chief. 
And  dwelt  as  a  king  in  the  army,  * 

As  one  that  comforteth  the  mourners." 

Now  the  pecaliar  excellence  of  this  poetry  is,  that,  though  it  is 
soft  and  plaintive  as  a  lute,  its  music,  lying  deeper  than  the  mere 
words,  never  wearies  the  ear,  its  sweetness  never  cloys  the  taste. 
You  may  read  it  a  hundred  times,  and  you  will  find  more  to 
admire  on  the  hundreth  than  on  the  first  perusal.  But  we  cannot 
linger  longer  on  this  magnificent  poet.  We  must  turn  from  Job; 
and  we  do  it  by  quoting  a  passage  from  the  lectures  of  Dr.  Turner 
in  the  Biblical  Repository — "  In  no  other  composition  extant 
is  there  so  much  of  the  true  sublime,  and  of  magnificent  sim- 
plicity, as  reign  through  the  latter  part  of  the  book  of  Job.  A 
jalge  competent  to  determine  the  comparative  merits  of  the 
literature  of  various  countries,  has  given  his  decided  opinion  in 
favor  of  this  work.  '  It  is  a  piece  of  writing,'  says  the  accom- 
plished Frederic  Schlegel,  '  which,  considered  merely  as  such,  is 
without  doubt  one  of  the  most  characteristic  and  sublime, 
which  has  come  down  to  us  from  the  ancient  world.' " 


OF   THE    BIBLE.  107 

Let  US  now  come  to  David,  tlis  "  monanh  minstrel  " — the  last 
in  our  present  order,  though  not  the  least  of  the  Hebrew  bards. 
In  him  the  lyric  poetry  of  the  Bible,  and  we  may  well  say,  of 
the  ancient  world,  reached  its  zenith.  There  is  a  power  of 
expression,  a  tenderness  of  feeling,  a  devotion  of  the  spirit,  a 
depth  and  compass  of  experience,  a  soul-stirring  divinity,  in  all 
the  strains  of  the  sweet  psalmist  of  Israel,  which  nothing  else 
has  ever  equalled,  and  beyond  which  nothing  will  ever  be  able 
to  go.  For  thirty  centuries  the  people  and  church  of  God  in 
many  lands  have  been  singing  the  lyrics  of  David,  feeling  that  he 
is  their  greatest,  because  he  is  their  divinely  inspired  minstrel. 

David's  lamentation  for  Jonathan,  sometimes  called  the 
"  Song  of  the  Bow  "  from  its  repeated  allusions  to  that  impor- 
tant weapon  of  ancient  warfare,  is  one  of  the  most  touching 
and  beautiful  things  to  be  found  in  elegiac  poetry.  We  may 
quote  it  from  our  common  version  in  another  place  :  but  let 
us  recite  a  few  lines  of  it  now  from  the  somewhat  liberal  trans- 
lation of  Herder,  in  order  to  show  you  how  easy  a  thing  it  is 
by  a  few  verbal  changes,  not  affecting  the  sense  at  all,  to  adapt 
this  prose-like  poetry  of  the  Bible  to  our  modern  ears.  Surely 
no  one  can  deny,  that  we  have  here  the  pathos,  the  imagery, 
and  the  very  sound  of  poetry. 

"  Beautiful  Roe,  thou  pride  and  glory  of  Israel ! 
Thus  then  art  thou  wounded  upon  thy  high  places  I 
Fallen,  fallen  are  the  heroes  ! 
How  are  the  heroes  fallen!" 

"  Ye  mountains  of  Gilboa,  on  you  henceforth, 
Let  no  more  rain  or  dew  descend  forever. 
No  more  on  you,  ye  mountains  blighted  with  a  curse ! 
For  there  the  shield  of  heroes  was  struck  down, 
The  shield  of  Saul,  as  of  one  unconsecrated  with  oil 


108  POETRY    AND   THE   BARDS 

"  Daughters  of  Israel,  weep  ye  for  Saul, 
No  more  will  he  clothe  you  m  garments  of  purple. 
Nor  deck  your  apparel  with  ornaments  of  gold. 
Ah !  how  are  the  heroes  flillen  in  the  midst  of  the  battle, 
Jonathan,  thou  lovely  Roe,  slain  on  thy  high  places." 

But  let  US  take  the  Psalms  as  illustrations  of  David's  muse. 
^\^e  need  not  quote  them.  They  are  familiar  to  all.  They  are 
among  the  first  lessons  of  our  infancy.  They  are  treasured  up 
ill  our  hearts  as  the  most  precious  and  sacred  mementoes  of  our 
early  childhood  and  youth,  and  they  will  be  the  last  parts  of 
the  Bible,  which  the  aged  can  ever  forget.  All  the  pious  dead 
of  every  past  generation  have  sung  them  with  rapture  :  all  the 
virtuous  among  the  living  love  them  :  and  even  the  vicious  and 
ungodly  cannot  fail  to  admire  them. 

Have  you  ever  considered  what  an  impression  the  psalmody 
of  David  and  his  co-minstrels  has  made  upon  the  world  ? 
Have  you  ever  calculated  the  extent  of  that  impression  upon 
your  own  heart  and  character  ?  After  all  your  reading  of 
Shakspeare  and  Shelley,  Moore  and  Scott,  Burns  and  Byron, 
or  even  Milton  and  Cowper,  we  venture  to  say  there  is  no  poetry 
in  the  world,  which  can,  this  day,  strike  so  many  chords  of 
feeling,  call  up  so  many  vivid  impressions,  and  revive  so  many 
tender  associations  in  your  hearts,  as  this  poetry  of  the  Psalms. 
Whether  you  read  it  in  the  "  old  family  Bible  that  lay  on  the 
stand,"  or  in  that  dimly  printed  little  Bible  which  was  the  gift 
of  a  dear  friend  now  gone,  the  first  book  you  ever  owned  ; 
v/hether  you  hear  it  sounding  out,  in  trumpet  tones  from  the 
pulpit,  or  coming  up  softly  to  the  ear  of  memory,  in  that  calm 
loving  voice,  which  you  first  heard  at  a  mother's  knee,  it  has  a 
charm  and  a  power  in  it  which  no  other  bard  can  claim. 

You  may  read,  as   you  have  often  read,   these  wonderful 


OF   THE    BIBLE.  l09 

Psalins  of  life — the  glowing  eighteenth  or  the  glorious  nine- 
teenth, the  beautiful  twenty-tliird  or  the  grandly  descriptive 
twenty-ninth,  the  proverbial  thirty-seventh  or  the  prophetic 
forty-fifth,  the  cousolitory  forty-sixth  or  the  penitential  fifty- 
first,  the  grateful  hundred-and-third  or  the  devout  hundred- 
and-sixteenth,  the  profound  hundred-and-nineteenth  or  the 
rapturous  hundred-and-thirty-sixth,  the  plaintive  hundred-and- 
thirty-seventh  or  the  sublime  hundred-and-thirty-ninth,  but  still 
wherever  you  read,  it  is  the  same  divinely  inspired  and  heart- 
searching  voice  :  and  there  is  no  other  voice  of  poesy  in  the 
world  v/hich  can  touch  your  heart  so  deeply. 


IX. THE    ARGUMENT    FROil    POETRY. 

All  educated  persons,  are,  to  some  extent,  acquainted  with 
the  different  arguments,  or  departments  of  evidence  in  favor  of 
the  truth  and  Divine  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  :  such  as  the 
internal  and  external  evidences  :  the  arguments  from  prophecy, 
from  miracles,  from  history,  from  moral  purity  ;  and  so  on. 
But  has  your  attention  ever  been  called  to  the  poetic  argu- 
ment ?  There  is  an  argument,  we  think  ;  a  very  strong  and 
important  one,  forming  a  branch  of  the  general  internal  evi- 
dence of  the  Bible,  to  be  derived  from  its  poetry  ;  especially 
this  poetry  of  the  Psalms,  of  which  David  is  the  principal 
writer. 

Let  those  who  claim  to  be  philosophers,  competent  to  explain 
and  account  for  the  phenomena  of  history,  tell  us,  if  they  can, 
aside  from  Divine  inspiration,  what  strange  power  is  this  which 
the  sweet  Psalmist  of  Israel  has  been  wielding  so  long  over  the 
heart  of  man  ?    What  sceptre  is  this,  which  he,  whose  visible 


110  POETEY    AND    THE    BARDS 

throne  has  been  in  the  dust  so  long,  is  still  swaying  over  that 
vast  multitude  of  educated,  refined  minds  in  every  land  and 
nation,  that  make  up  the  church  of  God  ?  What  magic  spell 
of  song  is  this,  with  which  the  monarch  minstrel  has  bound  in 
willing  homage,  and  stiil  binds,  with  ever  increasing  admiration, 
the  elite  of  the  whole  civilized  world,  both  in  the  church  and  out 
of  it  ?  How  happens  it,  that  David,  more  than  any  other  poet 
of  antiquity,  in  or  out  of  Israel,  should  write  the  devotional 
ballads  of  all  modern  Christendom  ? 

Why  is  it,  tliat  we  find  in  these  ancient  lyrics  of  the  Hebrew 
muse,  a  point  and  power  of  truth,  an  insight  into  human 
character,  a  deep  sympathy  with  all  man's  wants  and  woes,  an 
experience  and  a  personality,  by  which  they  come  home  to  the 
heart  of  the  individual  alike  in  joy  and  sorrow  as  if  they  were 
written  but  yesterday  to  suit  his  case  :  whilst  at  the  same  time 
there  is  in  them  a  reach  and  compass,  a  universality  and  com- 
prehensiveness, which  makes  them  suit  the  case  of  the  king  or 
the  servant,  the  philosopher  or  the  child,  with  equal  and  perfect 
fitness  :  so  that  they  are  still  adapted  to  the  whole  world  as 
well  as  they  were  to  Jerusalem,  and  express  the  devotions  of 
man  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  as  suitably  as  they 
did  in  the  times  of  David  ?  Nay,  further  ;  why  is  it  that 
these  "  Psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual  songs,"  have  expressed 
all  our  own  moral  sentiments,  and  religious  experiences,  and 
longings  of  desire  after  God,  immeasurably  better  than  we  can 
express  them  ourselves  :  so  that  in  every  possible  condition  of 
prosperity  or  adversity,  joy  or  sorrow,  health  or  sickness,  living 
and  dying,  we  turn  away  from  all  other  compositions,  and  pour 
out  our  hearts  to  God  in  these  words,  as  the  most  congenial 
food  and  aliment  of  our  souls  ? 

How  is  it,  that  this  shepherd  boy,  taken  from  the  folds  of 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  Ill 

Jesse's  flock,  on  the  hills  of  Judea,  has  souuded  out  from  that 
so  called  rude,  unlettered  age,  and  from  that  insignificant  cor- 
ner of  the  earth,  such  notes  of  human  sympathy  and  Divine 
consolation,  that  all  civilized  men  have  heard  them,  and  felt 
them,  and  can  nevermore  let  them  die  ?  Tell  us,  ye  that  reject 
inspiration,  but  cannot  reject  the  facts  of  history,  why  David 
has  done,  what  no  bard  of  antiquity  out  of  Israel,  ever  did — 
what  no  bard  of  Assyria,  Egypt,  Chaldea  or  Persia,  no  bard 
of  classic  Greece  and  Home,  ever  did  ?  Why  have  all,  or  near- 
ly all,  the  devotional  ballads *of  these  great  contemporaneous  na- 
tions perished,  whilst  the  Psalms  of  Israel  remain  ?  Why  has 
the  world  made  such  a  distinction  as  to  keep  these  for  daily  use, 
and  let  all  others  die  ?  Or  if  any  of  them  do  remain,  who 
reads  them  or  sings  them  or  cares  for  them  now  ?  Who  adopts 
them  as  his  matin  or  his  vesper  hymn  around  the  altar  of  do- 
mestic devotion,  or  as  his  requiem  for  the  dead  or  his  anthem  of 
public  praise  in  the  temple  of  worship  ?  Who  now  is  fired 
with  religious  enthusiam,  or  raised  on  the  wings  of  holy  rap- 
ture, or  sunk  in  the  deep  waters  of  penitential  sorrow  and  con- 
trition, by  any  song  of  Greece,  or  lay  of  ancient  Rome  ?  But 
David  is  at  every  fireside,  in  every  temple,  in  the  very  hearts' 
devotions  of  every  civilized  man — his  voice  heard  alike  in 
the  cradle  songs  of  our  infancy  and  in  the  last  farewells  of 
our  departing  old  age — his  words  bring  still  a  "  rod  and  a 
staff,"  with  which  the  humble  and  the  great  walk  through  the 
dark  "valley  and  shadow  of  death."  So  that  David  has  a 
firmer  hold  upon  the  world  now,  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  than  he  had  twenty  centuries  ago. 

Allow  us  then  to  press  the  question,  for  there  is  an  argument 
in  it  :  why  have  these  Jewish  ballads  become  the  ballads  of  all 
Christendom  ?  why  have  these  lyric  odes,  which  were  more  pecu* 


112  POETRY   AND   THE   BARDS 

liarly  and  intensely  national  than  any  songs  that  any  other  nation 
ever  had — indeed  so  intensely,  exclusively  and  thoroughly  Jewish, 
that  none  but  a  Jew  could  have  written  them,  and  no  mortal 
could  ever  mistake  one  of  them  for  a  song  of  Greece  or  Rome, 
Egypt  or  Babylon — why  have  these  deep-dyed  national  ballads  of 
Israel  become  the  religious  ballads  of  the  world  ?  Why  do  they 
alone,  of  all  the  songs  of  antiquity,  possess  this  individuahty  and 
comprehensiveness,  this  combination  of  the  national  and  local 
with  the  universal,  this  ephemsral  aspect  and  yet  indestructible 
character  ?  Can  infidelity  answer  tiiese  questions  satisfactorily  ? 
Now,  to  all  these  questions  there  is  but  one  answer  possible. 
These  Psalms  were  written  by  the  inspiration  of  the  Almighty. 
This  poetry  contains  Divine,  eternal  truth.  There  is  a  genius 
here  greater  than  that  of  human  poesy.  There  is  an  inspira- 
tion in  these  songs  higher  than  that  of  the  muses.  There  is 
an  intellect  at  work  here,  mightier  far  than  David's.  This  is 
the  secret  of  their  power ;  this  is  the  life-giving  element  of 
their  duration.  The  poetry  of  these  Psalms,  like  all  other  poe- 
try of  the  Bible,  has  achieved  a  success  in  implanting  itself  in 
the  heart  of  man,  which  no  other  poetry  has  achieved,  just  be- 
cause it  has  spoken  to  him  always  in  a  voice  of  infallible 
truth  and  virtue  as  well  as  of  beauty  and  sublimity.  The 
classic  muse  of  Greece  and  Rome,  spoke  to  man  in  a  voice 
of  sublimity  and  beauty,  and  often  gave  vent  to  the  outgushing 
emotions  of  the  soul  in  a  voice  of  surprising  and  surpassing  elo- 
quence ;  but  she  lacked  wisdom,  she  lacked  purity,  she  lacked 
truth.  She  had  no  knowledge  of  Divine,  eternal  things  ;  and 
being  weighed  in  the  balances  she  was  found  wanting,  and  her 
sceptre  passed  away.  But  the  Hebrew  muse,  by  her  knowledge 
of  Divine,  eternal  truth,  not  only  spoke  a  language  of  superior 
beauty  and  sublimity,  but  made  an  appeal  to  the  understanding, 


OF    THE    BIBLE.  113 

the  heart,  the  conscience  and  the  taste  of  the  world,  which 
shall  never  lose  its  power.  And  whence  did  the  Hebrew  muso 
derive  that  knowledge  of  Divine,  eternal  thing-s,  which  gives 
her  song  its  lasting  universal  charm  ?  Ave  !  that  is  the  point 
which  demands  the  final  answer.  And  there  is  bat  one.  She 
received  it  from  heaven  ;  it  was  the  gift  of  God.  She  aione, 
of  all  the  minstrels,  was  able  to  sing  with  unerring  wisdom  and 
purity,  while  she  sung  in  beauty  and  sublimity,  because  all  her 
bards  *'  spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost." 

Here  then  we  find  a  solution,  and  the  only  satisfactory  solu- 
tion of  all  our  questions,  as  to  the  superiority  and  enduring  in- 
fluence of  Hebrew  poetry — its  subject-matter  was  eternal  re- 
vealed truth,  and  its  inspiration  the  breath  of  God.  And  there- 
fore, every  time  you  open  this  sacred  book,  and  feel  the  power 
of  these  venerable  psalms,  stealing  into  the  very  chambers  of 
your  soul,  you  have  a  witness  within — a  demonstration  strong 
as  a  miracle — that  this  is  the  Word  of  God.  For  assuredly 
nothing  but  the  miracle  of  a  Divine  inspiration,  could  have  given 
to  a  shepherd  boy  of  Israel,  such  power  to  touch  your  heart, 
and  to  touch  the  great  heart  of  the  world,  at  this  distance  of 
three  thousand  years. 


X. COXCLUDING  REMARKS. 

But  it  is  time  to  draw  these  observations  to  a  close.  It 
seems  to  us,  that  every  intelligent  person  must  admit,  even  from 
the  brief  survey  we  have  now  taken,  the  existence  of  true  poe- 
try in  the  Bible  ;  and  not  only  this,  but  the  higher  point,  which 
we  have  been  seeking  to  establish,  viz. — that  the  Bible,  contain- 
ing the  most  perfect  models  of  sublimity  and  beauty  in  several 


114  POETEV    AND   THE   BAEDS 

departments  of  poetry,  is  itself  the  best  standard,  in  literature, 
of  true  poetic  taste  and  genius.  And  it  seems  to  us  that  no 
one,  possessing  a  cultivated  taste  and  a  true  sense  of  the  sub- 
lime and  beautiful,  can  ever  underrate  the  bards  of  the  Bible. 
Nor  is  it  without  a  purpose  that  God  has  made  so  much  use  of 
poeti'y  in  his  word.  A  sense  of  the  sublime  and  beautiful,  is 
deeply  implanted  in  human  nature.  Of  this,  poetry  is  the  most 
fitting  exponent  and  interpreter.  And  through  this  medium 
God  has  appealed,  not  only  to  the  hearts  of  the  educated  and 
refined — -men  of  taste  and  genius — but  especially  to  the  young, 
in  whose  breasts  the  fires  of  enthusiasm  always  burn  most 
brightly.  In  this  way,  in  ten  thousand  instances,  he  has  gained 
a  favorable  hearing  for  that  religion  which  the  Bible  reveals, 
and  for  that  great  salvation  which  the  Gospel  brings,  as  glad 
tidings  to  the  sinful.  The  world  has  done  homage  to  the 
blind  old  bard  of  Chios,  but  how  different  had  been  the  result, 
had  the  Iliad  contained  a  true  religion  and  a  true  gospel  for 
man  ! 

Poetry  and  music  have,  in  all  ages,  been  regarded  as  the 
vehicles  of  religious  instruction,  and  the  handmaids  of  religious 
devotion  :  and  they  have  done  good  or  evil  just  in  proportion 
as  the  religion  they  have  helped  has  been  true  or  false.  No 
well-read  student  of  history  can  look  with  indifference  upon  the 
influence  which  poetry  has  thus  exerted  over  the  character  and 
destiny  of  mankind.  In  our  new  Western  world  and  in  this 
money-loving  utilitarian  age,  it  is  kept  somewhat  in  the  back- 
ground, even  as  religion  itself  is,  but  it  can  never  altogether 
lose  its  hold,  so  long  as  the  church  shall  sing  the  praises  of 
God,  or  the  Bible  find  admirers,  or  the  human  heart  retain  its 
appreciation  of  the  sublime  and  beautiful. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  world,  except  religion,  which  has 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  115 

made  a  deeper  impression  on  man  than  poetry  And  there  is 
nothing  in  relig'ion  itself  except  its  own  vital  truth,  by  which  it 
has  acquired  and  maintained  its  ascendency  over  man,  more 
than  by  its  poetry.  So  that  it  is  impossible  to  tell  how  much 
the  world  owes  to  religion,  and  how  much  religion  owes  to 
poetry.  If  the  Bible  then  had  contained  no  poetry,  its  religion 
would  have  lost  an  incalculable  source  of  power  :  of  which  all 
forms  of  false  religion  had  plentifully  availed  themselves.  In- 
deed we  can  hardly  conceive  how  the  religion  of  the  Bible,  which 
is  preeminently  the  religion  of  the  heart,  could  have  gained  its 
present  supremacy  over  civilized  man,  without  the  aids  of  poetry 
and  music.  We  know  that  all  false  religions  have  seized  upon 
them  for  help  :  and  no  great  delusion  has  gained  even  a  partial 
triumph  without  their  aid. 

"  There  is  no  form  of  religion,"  says  Gilfillan,  "  so  false,  but 
that  it  has  availed  itself  of  the  aid  of  song.  Thor  and  Woden 
of  Northern  Europe,  Bramah  and  Vishnu  of  Asia,  have  all  had 
their  poet  laureates.  Mohammed  is  the  hero  of  a  thousand 
parables,  poems  and  tales  in  the  East.  Every  belief  or  unbelief 
has  found  its  poetry,  excepting  always  modern  materialism,  as 
represented  by  the  utilitarian  philosophy.  There  is  no  specula- 
tion in  its  eye — no  man  of  genius  can  make  it  beautiful  ;  be- 
cause it  has  not  one  beautiful  element  in  it,  and  because  no 
man  of  genius  can  believe  it.  Its  sole  music  is  the  chink  of 
money,  and  its  main  theological  principle — the  gradual  devel- 
opment of  mud  into  man  and  dirt  into  deity — is  as  incapable 
of  poetic  treatment,  as  it  is  of  scientific  proof." 

From  the  survey  which  we  have  now  taken  of  the  poetry  and 
the  bards  of  tl^e  Bible,  we  have  seen  how  the  truth  of  God  and 
the  nature  of  man,  the  religion  of  heaven  and  the  songs  of 
earth,  are  linked  together  in  immortal  ties.     What  God  hath 


116  POETRY   AND   THE   BAKDS 

thus  joined  together  let  no  man  put  asunder.  Religion  and 
Poesy,  united  in  the  Bible  from  their  birth,  have  lived  together 
through  all  ages,  companions  in  the  church  on  earth,  and  as  we 
learn  from  the  visions  of  the  Apocalypse,  destined  to  be  com- 
panions forever  in  the  church  above.  For  it  is  one  of  the  last 
and  the  most  delightful  revelations  of  the  book  of  God,  that 
this  religion  of  heaven,  whose  harbinger  was  the  song  of  the 
morning  stars  and  the  sons  of  God,  whose  monarch  minstrel  and 
whose  prophet  bards  sang  so  sweetly  and  so  long  upon  the 
holy  liiils  of  Zion,  and  whose  great  Messiah  was  heralded  to 
earth  by  a  multitude  of  the  heavenly  hosts,  praising  God  in  the 
chorus — "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest  :  peace  on  earth  and 
good  will  to  men" — that  this  religion,  after  it  shall  have  been 
sung  in  the  poetry  of  every  human  tongue,  and  filled  the  world 
with  the  voice  of  its  melody,  shall  at  last,  gather  together 
around  the  throne  on  high,  all  its  earlier  and  its  later  bards 
for  the  grand  concert  of  eternity  :  and  that  there,  upon  the 
bright  plains  of  glory,  in  an  amphitheatre  which  shall  sweep  the 
circuit  of  the  all-surrounding  skies,  and  rear  its  dome  amid  the 
echoing  arches  of  the  everlasting  firmament — there  the  innumer- 
able company  of  the  redeemed  from  earth  shall  tune  their 
golden  lyres,  and  the  thousands  and  thousands  and  ten  times 
thousands  of  angels,  cherubim  and  seraphim,  shall  bring  their 
harps,  and  with  their  immortal  tongues,  shall  sing  the  "  song 
>of  Moses  the  servant  of  God,  and  the  song  of  the  Lamb,"  whilst 
God  himself  shall  hear  and  approve  the  praise.  Then  shall 
the  redeemed  from  Adam's  race  lift  up  their  loudest,  sweetest 
song— even  the  new  song  of  redemption — "  Tliou  art  worthy, 
for  thou  wast  slain"  "Unto  him  that  washed  us  in  his  blood, 
and  hath  made  us  kings  and  priests  unto  God  :  to  him  be  glory 
and  dominion  forever  and  ever.  Amen." 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  117 

Such  then  is  the  Bible  ;  such  its  poetry,  its  religion,  its 
auticipations  !  And  now  in  conclusion,  as  an  illustration  of  the 
estimation  in  which  the  Bible  is  held  by  men  of  genius,  and  in 
perfect  keeping  with  our  subject,  we  may  refer  to  an  incident, 
which  is  one  of  the  most  touching  and  beautiful  to  be  found  in 
modern  biography.  It  is  an  incident  in  the  last  days  of 
Walter  Scott. 

If  there  is  any  one,  amongst  all  the  brilliant  writers  of  this 
nineteenth  century,  who  may  be  said  to  have  raised  himself 
above  his  fellows  by  the  force  of  literary  genius,  and  to  have 
won  the  very  highest  position  in  the  world  of  letters,  so  as  to 
be  fairly  entitled  to  a  double  chaplet  of  poesy  and  prose,  it  is 
that  gifted  son  of  the  North — the  author  of  Marmion  and  of 
Waverley,  who  held  the  world  so  long  spell-bound  while  he 
was  known  only  as  the  "  Great  Unknown." 

When  he,  thus  crowned  with  honors  at  home,  and  with  the 
laurel-wreath  of  a  world-wide  fame,  was  at  last  crowned  with 
length  of  days,  and  confined  to  his  bed  by  that  sickness  from 
which  he  never  recovered  ;  and  whilst  he  lay  there  at  Abbots- 
ford  in  the  bosom  of  his  family,  calmly  awaiting  the  hour  of 
death,  then  near  at  hand,  on  one  occasion  of  partial  relief,  he 
requested  a  friend  to  read  aloud  for  him.  "What  book 
shall  I  read  ?"  asked  the  friend.  "  Why  do  you  ask  such  a 
question  ?"  said  the  dying  man.  "  There  is  but  one  :  there  can  be 
but  one  now  :  bring  me  the  Bible." 

Verily,  there  is  a  time  in  every  man's  life,  when  the  Bible  is 
the  only  Book — the  last  and  only  book  for  the  peasant  and 
the  prince,  for  the  dying  child  and  the  dying  man  of  genius. 


118  ELOQUENCE  AND  ORATORY 


CHAPTER  IIi: 

ELOQUENCE  AND  ORATORY  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 

Elements  and  Characteristics  of  Eloquence— Illustrations  of  Eloquence— Earliest 
Example  of  Eloquence  in  the  Old  Testament — Judah  as  an  Orator— Aaron  as  an 
Orator— Other  Examples  from  the  Old  Testament— Eloquence  of  Ilushai,  the 
Archite. 

Fkom  the  review  already  taken  of  the  Hebrew  poets  and 
poetry,  it  is  easy  and  natural  to  pass  to  a  kindred  topic,  and  one 
too  that  is  sufficiently  ample  for  a  separate  illustration,  viz.: — 
"  The  Eloquence  and  Orators  of  the  Old  Testament."  Rich  and 
attractive  as  we  have  found  this  venerable  book  in  the  domain 
of  poesy,  it  will  be  found  not  less  so,  when  we  come  to  survey 
its  prose  writings,  and  point  out  the  examples  of  that  soul- 
subduing  eloquence,  by  which  these  men  of  old,  spoke  to  their 
fellow-men,  sometimes  as  they  were  impelled  by  their  own 
genius,  sometimes  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
in  one  case,  as  "  never  man  spake." 

Our  field  of  vision,  though  lying  in  the  same  book,  will  be 
wholly  changed.  An  entirely  different  class  of  personages  will 
now  stand  before  us.  Although  the  highest  models  of  elo- 
quence are  to  be  found  distributed  alike  through  the  Old 
Testament  and  the  New,  still  the  orators  of  the  Bible  are  not 
its  poets.  And  it  serves  to  illustrate  most  strikingly  the  vast 
variety  of  material  in  this  book,  that,  of  all  the  men  who  have 


OF    THE    OLD    TESTAMENT.  119 

been  mentioned  in  the  last  chapter,  or  may  be  mentioned  iu 
this,  only  one,  and  truly  speaking,  not  even  that  one,  wears  the 
double  character  of  bard  and  orator.  We  propose  to  consider 
the  orators  of  the  Old  Testament  and  of  the  New,  successively  • 
but  as  the  Subject  is  one  of  special  interest,  let  us  first  examine 
a  Uttle  into  the  nature  of  eloquence  in  general. 


I. ELEMENTS    AND    CHARACTERISTICS    OF    ELOQUENCE. 

It  is  not  an  easy  matter  to  give  a  satisfactory  analysis  of  elo- 
quence. Dim  indeed,  and  shadowy  is  the  line  which  divides  it 
from  good  classic  prose  on  the  one  side,  and  from  poetry  on  the 
other.  Yet  there  is  a  line.  All  true  poetry,  whether  of  the 
beautiful  or  the  sublime,  is  in  some  sense,  eloquent  :  and  all 
eloquence  of  a  high  order,  is  tinged  with  a  coloring  of  poetry  : 
because  eloquence  not  less  than  poetry,  is  the  language  of 
human  nature  when  excited — the  language  of  strong  emotions 
and  of  a  vivid  imagination.  Still  eloquence  and  poetry  are 
not  the  same,  and  must  be  distinguished. 

Regarded  simply  as  an  art,  the  distinction  is  broad  enough, 
as  indicated  by  the  etymology  of  the  terms,  poet  and  orator  : 
the  one  expressing  thought  and  feeling,  by  means  of  words 
arranged,  or,  if  you  please,  manufactured  into  a  definite, 
regular  order,  called  verse  or  rhythm,  and  the  other  expressing 
thought  and  feeling  by  words,  studied  or  unstudied,  poured 
forth  from  tlie  mouth,  without  regard  to  metre  or  the  harmony 
of  numbers.  As  mere  artists,  therefore,  the  poet  is  a  maker 
of  words,  mostly  written  words  ;  the  orator,  a  speaker  of 
words  mostly  unwritten  ;  but  both  alike  conveying  thought 
and  feeling  to  others.  The  hand,  with  its  proper  writing 
materials,  might  be  regarded  as  the  visible  emblem  of  the  one  : 


110  ELOQUENCE  AND  ORATORY 

and  the  mouth,  with  its  appropriate  aids  of  tone,  look  and 
gesture,  as  the  symbol  of  the  other. 

But  mere  art  is  the  least  important  element,  either  of  poetry 
or  eloquence.  All  verse,  however  regular  its  numbers,  is  not 
poetry  :  nor  is  all  oratory,  however  sonorous  and  Ornate,  elo- 
quent. There  must  be  something  else  :  there  must  be  a  living 
spirit  in  the  words — a  sort  of  divinity  stirring  within  the  num- 
bers or  the  speech,  before  we  can  say,  that  this  is  poetry,  or 
that  is  eloquence.  We  may  have  the  shibboleth  of  poetic 
diction,  and  the  glow  of  poetic  images,  as  well  as  the  harmony 
of  sweet  sounds,  where  there  is  no  true  spirit  of  poesy.  So 
also  there  may  be  the  spirit  of  real  poetry,  where  there  is  no 
form  of  verse  :  as  in  Ossian,  or  in  our  translation  of  the  Bible,  or 
in  the  original  Hebrew  itself,  and  as  there  would  be  in  Milton  or 
any  other  great  poet,  whose  verse  might  be  turned  into  prose, 
without,  at  all,  ceasing  to  breathe  the  true  spirit  of  poetry. 

And  precisely  so  is  it  with  the  orator.  A  man  may  open  his 
mouth  and  speak  all  day  :  and  in  all  his  words  there  may  be  no 
eloquence,  either  of  thought,  feeling,  or  imagination  —not  one 
glowing  image,  not  one  thrilling  thought,  not  one  soul-stirring 
appeal.  And  yet  another  man,  with  a  certain  earnestness  and 
enthusiasm,  shall  arise  and  present  the  same  arguments,  though 
in  different  words;  or,  if  you  please,  the  very  same  words,  though 
in  a  different  manner,  and  in  him  all  will  be  eloquent — there 
will  be  eloquence  in  every  accent,  look  and  gesture  :  and  he 
will  so  electrify  the  audience,  that  they  shall  not  know  these 
words  and  arguments  are  the  same. 

What  constitutes  the  difference  ?  As  all  men  are  not 
orators,  nor  all  oratory  eloquence,  by  what  process,  and  at 
what  point,  does  simple  speech  lay  aside  its  dullness  and  undergo 
that  wonderful  transformation  which  entitles  it  to  be  called 
eloquent  ?     It  is  hard  to  tell.     There  is  perhaps  nothing  more 


OF    THE    OLD    TESTAMENT.  121 

difficult  to  bring  within  the  compass  of  a  complete  definitiuu 
than  the  nature  of  true  eloquence.  We  shall  not  attempt  it. 
There  are  some  things  which  must  be  felt  in  order  to  be  appre- 
ciated. We  should  hardly  attempt  to  define  for  others,  the 
form  and  features,  the  look  and  lineaments  of  an  angel,  even  if 
we  had  seen  one.  So,  to  those  who  have  not  witnessed  for 
themselves  the  exhibitions  of  real  eloquence  all  descriptions 
would  be  useless.  But  no  man  needs  a  logical  definition  to 
ascertain  what  eloquence  is,  or  to  know  when  he  hears  a  true 
orator.  For  it  is  of  the  very  nature  of  this  inspiration  to 
carry  its  own  credentials  along  with  it,  and  by  the  living  voice 
to  cleave  a  way  for  itself  directly  to  the  heart.  Let  it  suffice 
then,  to  point  out  and  to  illustrate  by  examples,  the  different 
species  of  eloquence,  leaving  the  nature  of  the  thing  itself  to 
the  taste,  judgment,  and  opportunities  of  each  individual. 

The  object  of  the  orator,  whether  at  the  bar,  or  on  the 
forum,  in  the  pulpit  or  the  lecture-room,  in  all  judicial,  delibera- 
tive, religious  and  popular  assemblies,  is  to  convince,  instruct, 
please,  persuade,  or  excite  his  audience,  as  the  case  may  be  ; 
sometimes  the  one  and  sometimes  the  other,  and  it  may  be  all. 
Now,  the  power  by  which  he  does  this,  most  effectively,  is  what 
we  call  eloquence.  But  that  power  partakes  of  different 
elements  in  different  cases,  and  manifests  itself  in  several  differ- 
ent ways  in  different  orators.  And  these  diversities  give  rise  to 
different  orders  or  species  of  eloquence.  It  seems  to  us,  from 
such  examination  as  we  have  been  able  to  make,  that  these 
several  elements  aud  characteristics  of  eloquence,  may  all  be 
reduced  to  the  four  following — each  distinct  enough  to  give  rise 
to  a  peculiar  species,  and  all,  at  the  same  time,  comprehensive 
enough  to  cover  every  style  and  order  of  true  eloquence  : 

The  first  is  the  element  of  superior  knowledge  and  intellectual 
6 


12^  ELOQUENCE    AND    ORATORY 

power  in  the  orator — the  eloquence  of  pure  reason  and  argu- 
ment. Its  chief  characteristic  is  strong,  clear,  original  ^Jiought, 
forcibly  expressed.  We  may  denominate  it  the  eloquence  of 
the  Intellect,  as  distinguished  from  each  of  the  other  orders. 

The  second  is  that  element  of  power  in  the  orator  which 
springs  from  a  refined  taste,  a  vivid  imagination,  and  great 
command  of  language,  It  deals  much  in  analogies  and  illus- 
trations. It  has  a  high  appreciation  of  the  sublime  and  beauti- 
ful. It  is  characterized  by  classic  diction  and  brilliant  imagery. 
It  may  be  called  the  eloquence  of  Taste  and  Imagination. 

The  third  element  is  that  of  earnestness,  enthusiasm  and  deep 
emotion  in  the  speaker.  All  its  utterances  come  fresh  from 
the  fountains  of  feeling  in  the  soul  All  its  words  are  oracles 
and  commands.  The  orator  appears  like  one  inspired — one 
born  to  command  by  the  very  energy  of  his  will  and  intensity 
of  his  convictions.  This  may  be  called  the  eloquence  of  Sym- 
pathy and  the  Passions. 

The  fourth  is  the  element  of  graceful  delivery,  including  every- 
thing that  pertains  to  the  person,  manner,  tone,  look  and 
gesture  of  the  speaker.  It  is  that  power  which  can  supply  the 
place  of  the  other  three  ;  and  often,  as  on  the  stage,  makes 
things  that  are  not,  appear  as  though  they  were.  This  may  be 
called  the  eloquence  of  Action  and  the  Voice  :  of  which  Garrick 
may  be  taken  as  the  highest  type. 


II. ILLUSTRATIONS    OF    ELOQUENCE. 

Now  it  is  manifest  that  all  the  greatest  orators  of  ancient  and 
modern  times  have  possessed  these  four  elements  of  power,  and 
exhibited  these  several  varieties  of  eloquence.     And  their  sue- 


OF    THE    OLD    TESTAME^-T.  123 

cess  has  been  in  proportion  to  the  perfection  of  this  combination 
of  gifts  and  endowments.  Clearly  these  qualities  all  met  in 
Demosthenes  and  in  Cicero.  They  all  met  in  Chatham,  Fox  and 
Sheridan,  though  in  very  different  degrees.  They  were  all 
combined,  though  unequally,  in  Chalmers,  Edward  Irving,  and 
Robert  Ilall.  The  most  perfect  model  of  eloquence  which  our 
own  country  has  ever  produced — Patrick  Henry — was  distin- 
guished for  a  happy  combination  of  all  these  characteristics. 
But  from  all  the  accounts  which  have  come  down  to  us  from 
bis  contemporaries,  it  is  evident  that  he  was  Ifar  more  indebted 
to  the  last  two  of  these  characteristics  than  to  the  first  two. 
Dr.  Alexander,  who  heard  him,  at  the  bar,  in  a  case  of  life  and 
death,  has  given  us  the  following  testimony  :  "  The  power  of 
Henry's  eloquence  was  due,  first,  to  the  greatness  of  his  emotion 
and  passion,  accompanied  with  a  versatility  which  enabled  him 
to  assume  at  once  any  emotion  or  passion  which  was  suited  to 
his  ends.  Not  less  indispensable,  secondly,  was  a  matchless 
perfection  of  the  organs  of  expression,  including  the  entire 
apparatus  of  voice,  intonation,  pause,  gesture,  attitude  and 
indescribable  play  of  countenance.  In  no  instance  did  he  ever 
indulge  in  an  expression  that  was  not  instantly  recognized  as 
nature  itself :  yet  some  of  his  penetrating  and  subduing  tones 
were  absolutely  peculiar,  and  as  inimitable  as  they  were  inde- 
scribable. These  were  felt  by  every  hearer  in  all  their  force. 
His  mightiest  feelings  were  sometimes  indicated  and  communi- 
cated by  a  long  pause,  aided  by  an  eloquent  aspect,  and  some 
significant  use  of  his  finger." 

Macaulay,  who  now  holds  a  place  amongst  the  ablest  of  hving 
orators,  is  evidently  the  opposite  of  Henry,  in  being  mostly  dis- 
tinguished for  the  eloquence  of  taste  and  imagination,  and  also 
of  the  intellect.     Again,  Whitfield,  a  perfect  master  of  the  elo- 


124:  ELOQUEXCK    AND    ORATORY 

quence  of  sympathy  and  the  passions,  of  action  and  delivery 
not  wanting  also  in  taste  and  imagination,  was  unquestionably 
the  greatest  of  pulpit  orators  while  living,  but  is  scarcely 
known  to  posterity  by  his  writings,  because  he  was  deficient  in 
the  eloquence  of  the  intellect. 

On  the  contrary,  Edmund  Burke,  excelled  all  his  contempo- 
raries by  his  massive  intellect,  his  varied  learning,  his  classic 
taste  and  exuberant  imagination,  and  being  dead,  yet  speaketh 
in  his  wvi  ings  ;  whilst  as  a  living  orator,  because  lacking  a  single 
characteristic — the  eloquence  of  delivery  and  the  voice — he  was 
not  only  eclipsed  by  inferior  men,  but  left  to  pronounce  his  great 
speeches  to  empty  benches.  Still  who  can  deny  that  Burke 
was  an  eloquent  man  ?  We  might  as  well  deny  that  there  is 
any  such  thing  as  eloquence  in  the  world.  It  is  obvious,  then, 
that  there  are  different  orders  of  eloquence.  It  is  obvious  further, 
that  whilst  all  these  characteristics  must  meet  to  form  a  perfect 
and  successful  orator,  yet  they  have  been  exhibited  in  very  dif- 
ferent proportions  by  those  entitled  to  be  called  eloquent. 
Sometimes  one,  and  sometimes  another  has  been  the  praminent 
characteristic. 

We  have  seen  a  striking  illustration  of  this  difference  of  gifts, 
in  that  remarkable  triumvirate,  whose  eloquence  adorned  our 
national  senate  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  whose  statesmanship 
filled  the  world  with  its  fame,  and  whose  loss,  so  recently  and 
so  nearly  together,  our  country  has  been  called  to  deplore. 
Webster,  Clay  and  Calhoun  are  beyond  all  comparison  the 
three  greatest  statesmen  our  country  has  produced  in  this  nine- 
teenth century,  and  they  take  their  rightful  place  also  amongst 
the  greatest  forensic  orators  and  parliamentary  debaters  of  the 
world.  And  so  nearly  balanced  were  their  abilities  that  it  is 
almost  impossible  to  decide  the  point  of  superiority,  and  say, 


OF    TUK    OLD    TKS  l-AME^^T.  125 

who  made  the  deepest  impression  on  the  men  of  his  generation. 
There  can  be  no  question,  as  to  one  pohit — whose  influence  will 
be  greatest  on  posterity,  because  that  is  determined  by  their 
writings.  Xow  each  of  these  eminent  men  possessed,  in  some 
degree,  all  the  essential  elements  of  eloquence.  And  yet  how 
widely  different — how  utterly  dissimilar  were  their  styles  of  ora- 
tory— how  peculiar  to  each,  how  inimitable  by  any  other,  and 
how  characteristic  of  the  man,  was  his  own  mode  of  speech  ! 
They  did  not  differ  from  their  fellow-men,  more  widely,  than 
they  differed  from  each  other.  Perhaps  of  no  three  men  in 
America,  could  it  be  more  truly  said,  than  of  each  of  these,  that 
as  a  man  and  an  orator,  he  was  sui  generis — forming  an  order 
by  himself. 

Mr.  Calhoun's  eloquence  was  the  eloquence  of  intellect  and 
argument — pure,  clear,  original  thought  flowing  from  one  of  the 
acutest  of  intellects,  combined,  at  the  same  time,  with  an 
energy  of  will,  a  depth  and  earnestness  of  emotion,  a  high 
wrought  enthusiasm,  and  a  conviction  within,  that  always  seem- 
ed bent  on  carrying  its  purpose  in  defiance  of  all  opposition. 
He  was  but  little  aided  by  the  imagination,  and  almost  unin- 
debted to  the  outward  graces  of  delivery,  saving  such  as  neces- 
sarily arose  from  a  commanding  person,  an  eye  ever  burning 
with  the  fires  of  genius,  and  a  voice  indicative  of  the  utmost 
decision  and  energy.  But  it  was  a  combination  of  the  first  two 
characteristics — intellectual  power  and  enthusiastic  passion — ■ 
possessed  in  a  preeminent  degree,  that  gave  him  his  influence 
as  an  orator  and  his  greatness  as  a  statesman.  We  may  take 
him  as  the  representative  and  the  type  of  the  eloquence  of  Intel' 
lect  and  Enthusiasm. 

Jlr.  Webster's  was  also  the  eloquence  of  intellect  and  argu- 
ment, as   massive  and    comprehensive   as   that   of  his   great 


126  ELOQUENCE  AND  OKATOKY 

compeer,  but  at  the  same  time  aided  by  a  taste  as  classical  as 
Cicero's  and  an  imagination  almost  as  exuberant  as  Burke's — an 
eloquence  too,  uttered  with  all  the  force  that  an  imposing  per- 
son, a  powerful  voice,  and  an  energetic  delivery  could  give  ; 
but  wiihal  so  stately,  so  magnificent,  so  coldly  brilliant,  that 
it  did  not  always  touch  the  heart  and  move  the  passions,  except 
on  extraordinary  occasions,  when  the  circumstances  themselves 
aided  the  speaker's  appeal.  He  possessed  three  of  the  elements 
of  a  great  orator  in  high  perfection,  and  the  fourth  to  some 
extent.  His  great  power  lay  in  his  extraordinary  combination 
of  argument,  taste  and  imagination.  His  eloquence  is  eloquence 
to  be  read  as  well  as  heard.  His  intellect  v/as  like  the  clear* 
sky  of  a  winter's  night,  when  all  the  stars  of  the  firmament  are 
out — and  we  fancy  that  every  star  is  a  gem  of  thought — a  dia- 
mond of  the  mind.  We  take  him  as  the  exponent  of  the  elo- 
quence of  Reason  and  Imagination. 

Mr.  Clay's  eloquence  was  preeminently  that  of  the  feelings 
and  the  passions.  Feeling  deeply  himself,  he  was  a  perfect  mas- 
ter of  all  those  natural  arts  of  delivery  which  enabled  him,  at 
will,  to  move  and  to  control  the  sympathies  of  his  hearers.  With 
an  intensity  of  earnestness,  which  gave  him  the  aspect  of  one 
born  to  command,  and  with  an  enthusiasm  which  filled  and  fired 
his  whole  soul,  he  needed  not  the  slow  processes  of  argument, 
nor  the  aids  of  imagination  and  classic  diction  to  effect  his  object, 
but  taking  the  most  direct  and  effective  way  of  reaching  the  heart 
— that  is,  the  short  cut  through  the  door  of  its  sympathies  and 
passions— he  carried  the  citadel,  first  by  stratagem  and  then  by 
storm.  He  was  not  wanting  in  powers  of  reasoning,  nor  in 
flights  of  imagination,  but  he  did  not  depend  on  these.  He  had 
more  effective  artillery.  His  great  power  as  an  orator  lay,  not  in 
the  eloquence  of  intellect  and  argument,  nor  in  that  of  taste  and 


OF   THE   OLD   TESTAMENT.  127 

imagination,  but  in  the  burning  eloquence  of  a  soul  on  fire,  giv- 
ing utterance  to  itself  with  those  matchless  graces  of  delivery, 
that  charm  of  a  personal  presence,  that  magic  of  a  look,  that 
pointing  of  a  finger,  that  clarion-like  ringing  or  thunder-tone  of 
the  voice,  which  it  is  impossible,  for  any  one  who  heard  him,  to 
believe  could  have  been  surpassed  by  Demosthenes.  In  this  last 
characteristic,  he  was  unlike  both  his  great  compeers,  and  much 
more  resembled  Patrick  Henry.  We  take  him,  then,  as  the  re- 
presentative of  the  eloquence  of  action  and  delivery,  combined 
with  enthusiasm  and  the  passions. 


III. EARLIEST    EXAMPLES    OF    ELOQUENCE    IN    THE    OLD    TESTAMENT 

After  this  somewhat  protracted,  though  we  trust,  not  unin- 
teresting nor  unprofitable  illustration  of  the  several  orders  of 
eloquence,  let  us  now  address  ourselves  to  the  main  subject  be- 
fore us — to  a  consideration  of  those  examples  which  so  abun- 
dantly adorn  the  annals  of  scripture  history.  For  let  no  one 
suppose  that  eloquence  and  oratory  are  things  unknown  to  the 
Bible  ;  both  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New,  make  mention  of 
the  professional  orator,  and  give  us  specimens  of  almost  every 
kind  of  eloquence.  The  prophet  Isaiah,  in  his  third  chapter, 
gives  the  following  enumeration  of  prominent  public  characters 
and  heads  of  the  people — "  The  mighty  man,  and  the  man  of 
war,  the  judge  and  the  prophet,  and  the  prudent  and  the  an 
cient  ;  the  captain  of  fifty,  and  the  honorable  man,  and  the 
counsellor,  and  the  cunning  artificer,  and  the  eloquent  orator." 
Here  the  eloquent  orator  is  the  climax  of  the  catalogue,  which 
seems  to  show  in  vrhat  estimation  the  art  of  eloquence  was 
held  amongst  his  countrymen  at  that  early  day,  long  before  the 


128  ELOQUENCE  AND  OKATOKl 

Acropolis  of  Athens  had  rung  with  the  notes  of  Grecian 
eloquence. 

The  first  example  of  a  full  and  regular  oration,  which  we  find 
on  record  in  the  Bible,  is  in  the  forty-fourth  chapter  of  Gen- 
esis. It  is  tlie  speech  of  Judah,  before  Joseph  in  Egypt,  in 
behalf  of  his  brother  Benjamin,  and  if  this  had  been  the  first 
speech  that  was  ever  delivered,  it  would  be  a  proof,  that  the 
eloquence  of  the  bar  had  preceded  all  other  eloquence.  For 
it  has  all  the  characteristics  of  an  argument  in  defence — a  plea 
and  vindication  before  a  judicial  tribunal ;  but  whilst  it  is  the 
first  recorded  speech,  delivered  in  the  presence  of  a  numerous 
audience,  which  has  come  down  to  us,  it  was  by  no  means  the 
first  instance  of  public  speaking.  The  Bible  mentions  seve- 
ral earlier  occasions  of  public  speaking,  and  even  records  what 
was  said,  in  a  few  instances  of  a  less  formal  and  public  charac- 
ter. For  example  we  have  the  long  and  very  effective  speech 
of  Abraham's  servant,  probably  Eliezer  of  Damascus,  delivered 
to  the  kinsmen  of  Rebekah,  in  which  he  recites  the  events  of 
his  journey,  tells  of  the  wealth  and  honor  of  Abraham,  and 
seeks  to  win  the  prize  of  a  beautiful  young  bride  for  his  mas- 
ter's son.  Eloquence  has  not  always  been  so  successful  as  it 
was  on  this  occasion,  when  it  found  its  way  to  the  heart  of  the 
damsel  and  of  all  her  kindred.  And  those  who  would  achieve 
a  like  success  for  themselves  on  such  occasions,  might  do  well 
to  study,  not  only  the  natural,  heartfelt  eloquence,  but  the 
ardent  piety  and  faith  in  Providence,  which  marked  this  first 
recorded  speech  and  offer  for  a  bride. 

An  earlier  instance  still,  but  of  a  aififerent  kind,  we  find  in 
the  short  speeches  of  that  dialogue  between  Abraham  and 
Ephor,  about  the  purchase  of  Machpelah,  which,  we  are  told, 
'•  was  held  in  the  audience  of  the  children  of  Heth,  even  of  all 


OF    THE    OLD    TESTAMENT.  129 

the  city  ;"  and  in  which,  as  you  may  observe,  both  speakers 
exhibited  much  of  the  dignity,  grace  and  deference  of  the  fin- 
ished orator.  Similar  to  this  too,  was  another  dialogue,  held 
long  afterwards,  at  the  meeting  and  reconciliation  of  the  twin 
brothers,  Esau  and  Jacob,  in  the  presence  of  their  respective 
bands,  who  must  have  constituted  no  inconsiderable  nor  un- 
interer^ted  auditory.  And  in  this  connection  we  find  an  exam- 
ple— the  first  recorded  example,  of  still  another  kind  of  elo- 
quence— the  eloquence  of  prayer.  For  you  must  bear  in  mind 
that  prayer  is  one  of  the  forms  of  oratory,  perhaps  the  original 
and  primitive  form,  being  an  address,  not  to  men,  but  to  God. 
This  is  implied  iu  the  very  word  oratory.  That  solemn  and 
impressive  dialogue  between  Jehovah  and  Abraham  respecting 
the  overthrow  of  the  cities  of  the  plain,  can  hardly  be  called  a 
prayer,  although  in  the  end  it  partook  somewhat  of  the  nature 
of  prayer.  It  was  a  most  beautiful  and  eloquent  dialogue  and 
remonstrance,  but  strictly  speaking  not  a  prayer.  Accordingly, 
if  we  except  a  few  brief  expressions  of  prayer  in  the  hfe  of 
Abraham,  and  also  the  prayer  of  Eliezer  on  his  mission  for  Re- 
bekah,  the  first  recorded  prayer  of  any  length  which  we  find  in 
the  Bible  is  that  of  Jacob,  prior  to  his  meeting  with  Esau.  On 
this  Dr.  Kitto  well  remarks  :  "  Since  the  most  ancient  remain- 
ing example  of  any  human  act  and  thought,  is  deemed  worthy 
of  peculiar  notice  and  consideration,  the  first  human  prayer 
that  has  reached  us  is  entitled  to  attention."  This  prayer  is  a 
model  of  earnest,  humble,  confiding  importunity  ;  it  is  in  these 
words  :  "  0  God  of  my  father  Abraham  and  God  of  my 
father  Isaac,  tlie  Lord  which  saidst  unto  me,  Return  unto  thy 
country,  and  to  thy  kindred,  and  I  will  deal  well  with  thee.  I 
am  not  worthy  of  the  least  of  all  the  mercies,  and  of  all  th3 
f.-uth  which  thou  has  showed  unto  thy  ssrvant  ;  for  with   my 

6* 


130  ELOQUENCE  AND  OKATORY 

staff  I  passed  over  this  Jordan,  and  now  am  become  two  bands 
Deliver  me  I  pray  thee  from  the  hand  of  my  brother,  from  the 
hand  of  Esau  ;  for  I  fear  him,  lest  he  will  come  and  smite  me, 
and  the  mother  with  the  children.  And  thou  saidst,  I  will 
surely  do  thee  good,  and  make  thy  seed  as  the  sand  of  the  sea, 
which  cannot  be  numbered  for  multitude." 

Hero  then,  as  early  as  the  times  of  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Ja- 
cob, we  have  recorded  specimens  of  three  kinds  of  eloquent, 
per&uabive  speech — the  oral  narrative,  the  dialogue,  and  the 
prayer.  But  long  before  Abraham's  day,  we  find  still  another 
form  of  oratory  mentioned.  We  read  of  Noah,  who  is  described 
in  the  New  Testament,  as  a  "preacher  of  righteousness," 
and  who  warned  the  antediluvian  world  of  an  approaching 
deluge,  while  the  ark  was  preparing,  during  probably  a  hun- 
dred and  twenty  years.  Though  not  one  word  of  his  preach- 
ing has  come  down  to  us,  we  may  consider  him  as  the  earliest 
example,  at  least  on  record,  of  the  eloquence  of  the  pulpit. 
We  can  easily  believe  that  with  such  a  theme  upon  his  lips 
as  the  wrath  of  God  about  to  be  poured  out  upon  a  guilty 
world  in  the  waters  of  a  universal  deluge,  his  preaching  must 
have  been  eloquent  and  powerful.  Nor  can  we  tell  how  many, 
who  died  during  this  respite  of  120  years,  may  have  repented 
and  believed,  and  thus  been  saved  by  his  preaching  ;  but  we 
know  that  all  the  living  perished  except  those  of  his  own 
household.  They  continued  says  our  Saviour,  "  eating  and 
drinking,  marrying  and  giving  in  marriage,  till  the  flood  came 
and  took  them  all  away."  Like  many  of  his  successors,  this 
first  of  preachers  may  have  been  constrained  at  last  to  say — 
"  Lord,  who  hath  believed  our  report." 

If  we  ascend  the  stream  of  sacred  history  still  higher,  we 
shall  come,  at  last,  to  the  record  of  another  speaker,  and  ano- 


OF    THE    OLD    TESTAMENT.  131 

ther  speech — a  speech  delivered  to  tlie  first  audience  that  ex- 
isted on  earth,  conceived  and  uttered  too  with  great  art,  and 
with  the  full  purpose  of  persuasion — a  speech,  alas  !  as  effect- 
ive as  it  was  fair,  as  fatal  as  it  was  false.  It  is  the  brief,  but 
cunning  address  of  that  arch-tempter,  who,  "  skilled  to  make 
the  worse  appear  the  better  reason,"  presented  such  a 
show  of  reason  and  argument,  as  one  entitled  to  expound  the 
law  of  God.  "  Ye  shall  not  surely  die  :  for  God  doth  know, 
that  in  the  day  ye  eat  thereof,  ye  shall  be  as  Gods,  knowing 
good  and  evil."  It  would  seem,  that  the  spirit  of  inspiration 
had  recorded  for  us  this  first  plausible  and  fatal  speech,  as  if 
to  be  prophetical  alike  of  the  vast  infiucuce  and  the  vast  abuse, 
amongst  men,  of  the  noble  art  of  persuasion,  and  as  if  to  warn 
us,  by  one  memorable  example  against  the  wiles  of  the  deceit- 
ful special  pleader,  and  sophist,  and  rhetorician.  For  here,  in 
this  first  speech  of  that  old  serpent,  tlie  Devil,  we  have  the  ori- 
ginal type  and  model  of  all  those  orators,  great  and  small,  who 
knowing  the  right  have  defended  the  wrong,  and  prostituted 
their  high  talents  to  plead  the  cause  of  falsehood  and  injustice. 
How  often,  in  the  course  of  ages,  and  how  often,  alas  !  in  our 
own  times,  have  truth  and  justice  fallen  in  the  streets,  judg- 
ment been  turned  away  backward,  the  cause  of  suffering  inno- 
cence been  trampled  in  the  dust,  and  pampered  vice  and  crime 
gone  unwhipt  of  justice,  through  the  perversion  of  the  high  and 
sacred  gifts  of  eloquence  I 

'Sow,  we  have  a  heart-felt  reverence  and  homage  for  the  nobl 
science  of  the  law,  a  profound  respect  and  admiration  for  the 
legal  profession,  as  its  ministers  and  expounders — we  regard 
the  one  as  the  very  sanctuary  of  all  social  and  civil  order,  and 
look  up  to  the  other,  as  the  high  priests  of  truth  and  justice, 
clothed  v,-ith  the  delegated  authority  of  God  ;  but  when  we  see, 


132  ELOQUENCE  AND  ORATORY 

as  we  have  too  often  seen,  the  sworn  expounders  of  ilie  law, 
vindicating  the  most  awful  crimes  known  to  the  Decalogue, 
when  we  see  those  to  whom  we  are  accustomed  to  look  as  the 
natural  and  divinely  appointed  guardians  of  life,  character  and 
public  order,  combining,  under  the  mere  forms  of  law,  to  defeat 
all  the  ends  for  which  law  was  ordained  of  God,  we  have  no 
language  adequate  to  express  our  feelings  of  grief  and  alarm. 
Our  confidence  in  the  tribunals  of  justice  is  shaken  :  our  feel- 
ing of  protection  in  the  enjoyment  of  life,  liberty  and  happiness, 
is  rudely  torn  away  :  and  the  native  sense  of  justice,  which  un- 
derlies the  public  conscience,  receives  a  wound,  at  the  hands  of 
its  professed  friends,  from  whicli  it  recoils  in  amazement  and 
terror. 

And  if  there  is  any  responsibility,  which  it  will  be  fearful  to 
meet  in  the  day  of  final  accounts  at  the  bar  of  the  judge  of 
quick  and  dead,  it  must  be  the  responsibility  of  the  ministers 
of  justice  wlio  have  perverted  the  heaven-born  gifts  of  genius 
and  eloquence,  thus  to  trample  her  sacred  name  in  the  dust. 
If  there  is  any  woe  in  the  Bible  which  is  fearful  and  overwhelm- 
ing, it  is  the  woe  pronounced  on  those,  who  plead  the  cause 
of  injustice  and  oppression,  "  calling  evil  good  and  good  evil, 
putting  darkness  for  light  and  light  for  darkness,"  confounding 
and  breaking  down  all  the  landmarks  between  right  and  wrong. 
Eloquent  oratory  is  a  splendid  gift,  but  let  the  eloquent  orator 
beware  how  he  abuses  that  gift.  For  there  is  a  God  of  infinite 
holiness  on  the  throne  who  will  hold  him  to  a  strict  account  for 
every  word  ;  and  that  God  hath  said — "  Woe  unto  them  that 
justify  the  wicked  for  reward,  and  take  away  the  righteousness 
of  the  riGrhteous  from  him." 


of'  the  old  testament.  133 


IV. JUDAH    AS    AN    ORATOR. 

But  returning  from  this  digression,  and  passing  over  all  the 
earlier  and  less  finished  examples  of  public  speaking  in  the  Bi- 
ble, we  may  select  the  plea  of  Judah,  as  an  instance  of  the 
most  simple,  touching  and  beautiful  forensic  eloquence.  "We 
need  not  stop  to  depict  the  scene.  You  all  remember  the  try- 
ing circumstances  in  which  he  stood  up  to  plead  for  his  breth- 
ren and  himself  in  that  august  presence — before  the  powerful, 
apparently  harsh,  and,  to  them  all,  unknown  governor  of 
Egypt.  A  stranger  far  from  home,  and  powerless  ;  in  a  land 
of  despotic  power  and  dark  idolatry,  he  stood  arraigned  before 
the  judgment  seat  on  a  charge  which  could  not  be  denied. 
Before  him  and  around  him  were  doubtless  gathered  the  stern 
officers  of  justice  and  a  crowd  of  unsympathizing  spectators  ; 
whilst  in  the  back-ground  stood  his  brethren  with  desponding 
hearts  and  looks  of  agony.  He  stood  moreover  vrith  the  con- 
sciousness of  a  dark  deed  of  former  guilt  yet  unatoned — a  dreadful 
secret  which  his  companions  knew,  but  which  none  durst  reveal — 
and  at  the  same  time  conscious  of  perfect  innocence  in  the  matter 
of  which  they  were  now  accused — under  all  these  struggling  emo- 
tions, amidst  all  these  crushing  disadvantages,  he  stands  there  to 
plead  for  liberty,  it  may  be  for  life. 

AVe  know  not  with  what  looks  and  accents  he  delivered  the 
speech.  We  can  only  imagine  what  must  have  been  the  looks, 
and  tones  and  gestures  of  a  man  speaking  under  such  circum- 
stances. Indeed  the  speech  itself,  which  is  on  record,  embraced 
in  the  short  compass  of  seventeen  verses,  may  be  taken  as  an 
index  of  what  these  were.  Aside  from  these,  the  speech  con- 
tains all  the  elements  of  real  eloquence.     Its  chief  characteristic 


134  ELOQUENCE  AND  OEATORY 

is  its  touching  pathos — its  appeal  to  the  teiiderest  sympathies 
of  the  soul.  The  deepest  fountains  of  feeling  are  broken  up, 
and  poured  out  in  every  word.  Its  earnestness,  is  an  earnest- 
ness almost  unto  death.  It  contains  also  argument — the  argu- 
ment of  the  most  simple,  straight-forward,  truthful  narrative  of 
facts.  It  appeals  also  to  the  imagination  :  and  it  is  beautiful 
to  mark,  with  what  delicacy  the  speaker's  fancy  plays  around 
the  venerable  form  of  that  sorrowing  patriarch  who,  in  his  dis- 
tant home,  is  waiting  for  Benjamin,  whose  very  life  is  bound  up 
in  the  life  of  the  child,  and  whose  grey  hairs  must  go  down  to 
the  grave  if  he  does  not  return. 

But  let  us  read  the  passage,  as  there  is  perhaps  nothing  in 
the  Bible  more  worthy  of  a  frequent  perusal,  as  a  model  of  good 
taste  and  simple  natural  oratory.  The  whole  company,  on  the 
finding  of  the  cup,  had  returned  to  the  city.  Brought  into 
Joseph's  house,  they  fell  dovv-n  on  the  ground  before  him.  And 
Joseph  said  unto  them,  "  What  deed  is  this,  that  ye  have 
done  ?    Know  ye  not  that  such  a  man  as  I  can  certainly  divine  ?" 

And  Judah  said,  "  What  shall  we  say  unto  my  lord  ?  What 
shall  we  speak  ?  or  how  shall  we  clear  ourselves  ?  God  hath 
found  out  the  iniquity  of  thy  servants  ;  behold  we  are  my 
Lord's  servants,  both  we,  and  he  also  with  whom  the  cup  was 
found." 

And  he  said,  "  God  forbid  that  I  should  do  so  ;  but  the  man 
in  whose  hand  the  cup  is  found,  he  shall  be  my  servant  ;  and 
as  for  you,  get  ye  up  in  peace  unto  your  father." 

Then  Judah  came  near  unto  him  and  said,  "  Oh,  my  lord,  let 
thy  servant,  I  pray  thee,  speak  a  word  in  my  lord's  ears,  and 
let  not  thine  anger  burn  against  thy  servant  ;  for  thou  art  even 
as  Pharaoh.  My  lord  asked  his  servants,  saying,  have  ye  a 
father  or  a  brotlier  ?     And  we  said  unto  mv  lord.  *  We  have  a 


OF   THE    OLD    TESTAMENT.  135 

father,  an  old  man,  and  a  child  of  his  old  age,  a  little  one  ;  and 
his  brother  is  dead,  and  he  alone  is  left  of  his  mother,  and  his 
father  loveth  him.'  And  thou  saidst  unto  thy  servant,  '  Bring 
him  down  unto  me,  that  I  may  set  mine  eyes  upon  him.'  And 
we  said  unto  ray  lord,  '  The  lad  cannot  leave  his  father, 
for  if  he  should  leave  his  father,  his  father  would  die.' 
And  thou  saidst  unto  thy  servants,  '  Except  your  youngest 
brother  come  down  with  you,  ye  shall  see  my  face  no 
more.  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  we  came  up  unto  thy 
servant,  my  father,  we  told  him  the  words  of  my  lord.  And 
our  father  said,  '  Go  again  and  buy  us  a  little  food.'  And  we 
said,  '  "We  cannot  go  down  ;  if  our  youngest  brother  be  with 
us,  then  will  we  go  down  ;  for  we  may  not  see  the  man's  face, 
except  our  youngest  brother  be  with  us.'  Then  thy  servant, 
my  father,  said  unto  us,  *  Ye  know  that  my  wife  bare  me  two 
sons.  And  the  one  went  out  from  me  ;  and  I  said,  Surely  he 
is  torn  in  pieces,  and  I  saw  him  not  since.  And  if  ye  take  this 
also  from  m?,  and  mischief  befall  him,  ye  shall  bring  down  my 
grey  hairs  with  sorrow  to  the  grave.'  Xow  therefore,  when  I 
come  to  thy  servant,  my  father,  and  the  hid  be  not  with  us  ; 
seeing  that  his  Hfe  is  bound  up  in  the  lad's  life  :  it  shall  come 
to  pass,  when  he  seeth  that  the  lad  is  not  with  us,  that  he  will 
die  ;  and  thy  servants  shall  bring  down  the  grey  hairs  of  thy 
servant,  our  father,  with  sorrow  to  the  graye.  For  thy  servant 
became  surety  for  the  lad  unto  my  father,  saying,  '  If  I  bring 
him  not  unto  thee,  then,  I  shall  bear  the  blame  of  my  father 
forever.'  Now  therefore,  I  pray  thee,  let  thy  servant  abide, 
instead  of  the  lad,  a  bondman  to  my  lord  :  and  let  the  lad  go 
up  with  his  brethren.  For  how  shall  I  go  up  to  my  father, 
and  the  lad  be  not  with  me  ?  lost  peradventure,  I  see  the  evij 
that  shall  come  on  my  father." 


136  ELOQUENCE  AND  ORATORY 

Now  if  eloquence  is  to  be  measured  by  tlie  effect  it  produces, 
and  that  be  adjudged  great  which  accomplishes  its  purpose, 
then  was  this  aj  eloquent  and  powerful  speech.  It  gained  its 
end  completely.  It  changed  the  whole  plan  of  Joseph,  which 
had  been  to  keep  Benjamin  in  Egypt.  It  melted  his  soul  to 
tenderness.  He  could  restrain  his  feelings  no  longer  ;  he  made 
himself  known  to  his  brethren  and  wept  aloud  in  the  hearing 
of  all  the  house  of  Pharaoh.  If  Judah  had  known  at  the  first, 
who  this  exalted  personage  was  before  whom  he  was  pleading, 
and  if  he  had  been  able  to  read  his  inmost  heart  during  the 
delivery  of  his  speech,  he  could  hardly  have  put  words  together 
making  a  stronger  appeal  to  the  feelings  and  imagination  of 
Joseph.  Says  that  eminent  biblical  critic,  Dr.  Kitto,  ''There 
is  not  in  the  whole  range  of  literature  a  finer  piece  of  natural 
eloquence  ;  and  there  are  few  who  have  read  it,  without  being 
moved,  like  Joseph,  even  to  tears."  We  certainly  do  not  know 
a  piece  of  the  same  compass,  in  any  uniuspu'ed  composition, 
which  can  so  affect  us. 


V. AARON    AS    AN    ORATOR. 

The  next  upon  our  list  of  Bible  orators  is  Aaron,  the  brother 
of  Moses.  It  would  seem  that  Moses,  with  all  his  extraordinary 
gifts  and  powers,  was  no  orator,  at  least,  in  his  own  estimation. 
Although  his  educational  advantages  in  Egypt  had  been  great, 
and  perhaps  his  public  services  also,  and  although  he  is  described 
as  a  "  man  mighty  in  words  and  deeds,"  yet,  up  to  the  time  of 
his  commission  to  deliver  Israel,  he  seems  not  to  have  been  dis- 
tinguished for  the  gift  of  public  speaking.  He  may  have 
become  so  afterwards  ;  but  on  this  ground,  at  the  time  of  the 


OF    THE    OLD    TESTAMENT.  137 

commission,  he  pleaded  exemption  from  the  arduous  work. 
Aaron,  his  elder  brother,  however,  who  had  remained  in  Egypt 
during  the  forty  years'  absence  of  Moses,  and  had  no  doubt 
acquired  some  considerable  influence  amongst  his  countrymen, 
did  possess  this  very  qualification  which  the  other  lacked  ;  and 
that  in  a  high  degree,  for  He  who  formed  man's  mouth  testified 
that  he  could  "  speak  well."  In  that  extraordinary  interview, 
which  took  place  at  the  burning  bush  on  mount  Horeb,  between 
Moses  and  the  Almighty,  among  other  excuses  for  not  accept- 
ing the  great  commission,  we  hear  him  offering  the  following  : 
— "  Oh  my  Lord,  I  am  not  eloquent,  neither  heretofore  nor 
since  thou  hast  spoken  to  thy  servant  :  but  I  am  slow  of  speech 
and  of  a  slow  tongue."  In  this  perhaps  he  had  spoken  too  dis- 
paragingly of  his  natural  gifts,  as  well  as  of  the  Lord's  power  : 
and  witli  much  displeasure  the  Lord  said,  "  Is  not  Aaron  the 
Levite  thy  brother  ;  I  know  him  that  he  can  speak  well  ;  and 
he  shall  be,  even  he  shall  be  to  thee  instead  of  a  mouth  ;  and 
thou  shalt  be  to  him  instead  of  God." 

Thus  commissioned  and  empowered,  to  act  as  one  man — an 
arrangement  which  combined  the  energy  of  the  man  of  deeds 
with  the  eloquence  of  the  man  of  words — the  two  brothers 
went  forth  to  fulfill  their  high  and  solemn  task.  Having  first 
met  in  the  wilderness  by  divine  direction,  they  returned  together 
into  Egypt,  with  the  wonder-working  rod  in  their  hands,  and  a 
"  Tiius  saith  the  Lord  "  upon  their  lips,  to  deliver  the  messages 
of  Jehovah,  first  to  their  own  people  and  then  to  Pharaoh. 
Arrived  at  the  scene  of  action,  and  received  as  deliverers  by 
their  suffering  countrymen,  they  hear  again  a  voice  from  hea- 
ven, reaffirming  their  joint  commission,  and  saying  to  Moses  : 
— "  See,  I  have  made  thee  a  god  to  Pharaoh  ;  and  Aaron  thy 
brother  shall  be  thy  prophet  ;  thou  shalt  speak  all  that  I  com- 


138  ELOQtTENCE   AND   ORATOEY 

mand  thee,  and  Aaron  thy  brother  shall  speak  unto  Pharaoh, 
that  he  send  the  children  of  Israel  out  of  his  land." 

But  we  need  not  repeat  the  story  of  their  wonderful  labors. 
You  remember  what  followed — ^liow  they  stood  day  after  day  to 
plead  their  cause  before  the  monarch  and  the  magicians  and  all 
the  Court  of  Egypt — how  they  waxed  bolder  and  bolder,  as 
they  delivered  their  sublime  and  awful  messages  in  the  name  of 
the  God  of  Israel.  If  ever  there  was  a  voice  of  eloquence  heard 
amongst  men  which  made  the  wicked  tremble,  even  on  the 
throne  of  power,  it  must  have  been  the  voice  of  these  stern, 
uncompromising  ambassadors  from  the  desert,  as  they  stood 
some  sixteen  times  in  the  presence  of  the  tyrant,  pleading  the 
cause  of  their  oppressed  brethren,  and  alternately  denouncing 
and  averting  the  wrath  of  heaven.  If  ever  words  were  deeds, 
they  were  these  words,  which,  lightning-like,  were  so  speedily 
followed  by  the  thunder-bolts  of  Divine  judgment. 

Now  there  are  three  things  which  are  always  needful  for  the 
display  of  eloquence  of  the  highest  order  ;  three  essential  par- 
ticulars must  conspire  together  in  the  production  of  a  grand 
and  powerful  speech  ;  and  if  these  conspire,  the  speech  need 
not  be  long  in  order  to  be  eloquent  and  effective.  There  must 
be  a  great  occasion,  a  great  subject,  and  a  great  speaker.  No 
one  of  these  will  do  alone  ;  no  two  of  them  will  answer  with- 
out the  third.  Says  a  high  authority,  Mr.  Webster,  "  true 
eloquence  does  not  consist  in  mere  speech.  It  must  exist  in 
the  man,  in  the  subject,  and  in  the  occasion."  Such  a  subject 
Demosthenes  had  in  the  liberty  of  Greece,  and  such  an  occasion 
in  the  threatened  hivasion  of  Philip,  king  of  Macedon  ;  besides 
many  otliers.  Such  an  occasion  and  such  a  subject  Cicero 
found  in  defending  the  rights  of  Koman  citizenship  against 
Verres,  and  the  safety  of  the  republic  against  the  machinations 


OF   THE    OLD   TESTAMENT,.  139 

of  Catiline.  Such  an  occasion  and  sucli  a  theme  of  absorbing 
l^ublic  interest,  Burke  and  Sheridan  had  on  the  trial  of  Warren 
Hastings  ;  Chatham  on  the  American  War  ;  Brougham  at  the 
trial  of  Queen  Caroline  ;  and  Robert  Emmet  when  asked, 
"  Why  sentence  of  death  should  not  be  pronounced  against 
him."  Such  Whitfield  always  had  in  preaching  salvation  to 
the  vast  crowds  that  attended  his  ministry,  both  in  England  and 
America.  Such  a  theme  and  such  a  crisis  too  of  intense  moral 
sublimity,  Patrick  Henry  and  his  compatriots  found  in  our 
Eevolutionary  struggle.  Such  had  Mr.  Clay  more  than  once, 
in  introducing  his  great  compromise  measures  for  the  pacifica- 
tion of  our  country.  And  such  had  Mr,  Webster  whenever  he 
stood  forth  as  the  expounder  of  our  Constitution,  and  defender 
of  our  national  union. 

In  all  these  cases,  and  in  many  others  that  might  be  men- 
tioned, the  three  circumstances  of  a  great  occasion,  a  great 
theme,  and  a  great  man  conspired  together  to  the  creation  of 
great  eloquence.  Now  apply  the  canon  to  the  case  in  hand  ; 
and  tell  us  when  did  these  three  essentials  ever  meet  in  such 
sublime  combination,  as  when  the  two  brothers  stood  before 
Pharaoh,  as  Divinely  authorized  deliverers  of  Israel,  demand- 
ing a  hearing  in  the  name  of  Jehovah,  and  with  outstretched 
hand  and  uplifted  rod,  reiterating  the  message,  till  Egypt's 
river  rolled  with  blood — till  its  soil  crept  with  reptiles  and  its 
air  swarmed  with  insects — till  all  its  vegetable  and  its  animal 
tribes  died  of  pestilence  or  devouring  vermin — till  its  sky  al- 
ternately grev/  black  with  hail  storms  or  blazed  with  lurid 
lightnings,  and  a  cry  of  death  was  heard  at  midnight  in  every 
habitation  of  the  land  !  The  subject  was  the  emancipation, 
from  a  horrible  bondage,  of  a  nation,  probably  not  much  short 
of  three  millions  of  people.     The  occasion  was  the  manifiest  in- 


140  ELOQUENCE  AND  OKATOKY 

terpositioQ  of  Jehovah  in  the  ten  successive  and  miraculous 
judgments  which  spread  desolation  over  the  most  powerful 
kingdom  then  in  the  world.  The  speaker  was  not  simply  the 
fluent,  eloquent  Aaron,  supported  by  his  more  powerful 
brother,  but  the  Lord  himself,  who  was  revealing  his  mighty 
arm  and  uttering  that  voice  which  shakes  both  earth  and 
heaven.  They  spoke  to  Pharaoh,  the  very  words  which  the  Al- 
mighty had  spoken  to  them. 


VI. OTHER  EXAMPLES  FROM  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 

But  not  wishing  to  dwell  too  long  on  the  Old  Testament,  we 
must  now  group  together,  by  way  of  reference  or  of  mere  pass- 
ing notice,  several  other  striking  examples  of  eloquent  public 
speaking,  along  with  one,  not  less  remarkable,  of  a  private 
character.  These,  could  we  dwell  upon  them,  would  not  be 
found  wanting  in  any  essential  attribute  of  moral  sublimity  and 
power.  Such,  for  instance,  was  the  noble  and  dignified  speech, 
recorded  at  some  length,  which  Joseph  delivered  in  the  pre- 
sence of  the  wise  men  of  Egypt,  when  he  interpreted  the  dreams 
of  the  king,  and  foretold  the  years  of  plenty  and  of  famine. — 
Such  were  the  still  fuller  and  loftier  speeches  of  Daniel,  long 
afterwards,  on  similar  occasions  ;  once  when  he  stood  before 
Belshazzar  and  a  thousand  of  his  lords  and  chief  estates,  to 
expound  the  mysterious  hand  writing  on  the  wall,  and  tell  of 
the  judgment  which  was  even  then  waiting  at  the  door  ;  and 
twice  before  that,  when  he  stood  before  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  so 
announced  the  decrees  of  heaven,  that  this  proudest  of  Chal- 
dea's  monarclis  fell  down  and  worshipped  Daniel,  commanding 
an  oblation  to  be  offered  to  him  as  one  having  the  spirit  of  the 


OF    THE    OLD    TESTAMENT.  141 

holy  God.  We  might  mention,  as  further  examples,  those  awfully 
sublime,  messages  some  of  them  recorded,  and  some  barely 
referred  to,  which  on  great  and  trying  occasions,  Elijah  and 
Elisha,  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah,  each  in  his  day,  delivered  to  the 
kings  and  courts  of  Israel  and  Judah. 

We  might  dwell  upon  another  scene  of  interest  (now  greatly 
increased  by  the  light  of  Mr.  Layard's  discoveries  of  Nineveh), 
and  tell  of  that  extraordinary  display  of  power  by  a  single 
voice  speaking  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  which  took  place  w^heu 
Jonah  passed  through  the  great  city,  and  for  one  whole  day 
proclaimed  in  all  its  streets,  in  the  hearing  of  its  vast  popula- 
tion, those  words  of  terror  :  "  Yet  forty  days  and  Xineveh  shall 
be  overthrown," — until  king  and  people  repented  before  God 
in  sackcloth  and  ashes.  To  use  the  language  of  another  :  "  He 
must  have  been  the  subject  of  strange  and  conflicting  emotions 
when  he  entered  the  gates  of  that  proud  capital.  The  stern 
soldiers  upon  the  battlements,  armed  w^ith  swords  and  shields, 
helmets  and  spears — the  colossal  images  of  winged  compound 
animals  that  guarded  the  gates — the  gorgeous  chariots  and 
horsemen  that  rattled  and  bounded  through  the  streets — the 
pomp  and  state  of  the  royal  palaces — the  signs  of  trade  and 
commerce,  wealth  and  luxury,  of  pleasure  and  wickedness  on 
every  hand — must  have  amazed  and  perplexed  the  prophet, 
conscious  of  his  utter  loneliness  amidst  a  mighty  population,  of 
his  despicable  poverty  amidst  surrounding  richefi,  of  his  rough 
and  foreign  aspect  amidst  a  proud  and  polished  community — 
there  was  enough  to  shake  his  faith,  and  to  cowardize  his  bold, 
haughty,  and  scornful  spirit.  Yet  he  dared  not  a  second  time 
abandon  his  mission.  He  therefore  passed  along  the  broad 
ways,  and  the  great  places  of  concourse,  crying  in  solemn  tones, 
'  Yet   forty  days   and   Nineveh   shall  be   overthrown.' "      No 


142  ELOQUENCE  AND  ORATORY 

doubt  this  great  burden  of  his  speech  was  enforced  by  other 
words,  and  perhaps  by  a  recital  of  all  that  had  happened  to 
him  in  the  deep. 

We  might  speak  also  of  the  eloquence  of  another  very  differ- 
ent occasion  ;  of  that  exciting  and  joyful  day,  when  the  Jewish 
exiles,  on  their  return  from  Babylon,  gazed  with  gratitude  upon 
the  rising  walls  of  their  new  city  and  temple,  and  heard  Ezra, 
the  patriot  scribe  and  priest,  from  his  wooden  pulpit  in  the 
street,  and  from  morning  till  midnight,  reading  and  expound- 
ino;  the  word  of  God  to  the  assembled  multitude.  We  have 
no  record  of  what  he  said.  But  we  know  there  must  have 
been  great  eloquence  there,  because  it  was  a  great  day  for 
Jerusalem,  the  speaker  had  a  great  theme,  and  he  was  himself 
a  distinguished  servant  of  God. 

We  might  set  before  you,  in  like  manner,  the  scenes  of  an 
earlier  and  similar  but  still  more  imposing  occasion  ;  when  at 
the  dedication  of  the  first  temple,  Solomon,  the  most  august  of 
Hebrew  monarchs,  stood  before  the  altar  of  the  Lord,  while 
the  cloud  of  the  Divine  glory  filled  the  house.  Having  first 
addressed  the  myriads  of  devout  worshippers  there  assembled, 
he  kneeled  down  upon  the  scaffold  of  brass  in  the  centre  of 
the  court,  and  spreading  forth  his  hands  towards  heaven, 
poured  out  an  address  to  Jehovah,  which  is  recorded  for  our 
instruction,  and  is  at  once  the  longest  prayer  in  the  Bible,  and 
the  most  magnificent  liturgy  in  human  speech. 

To  this  brief  enumeration  of  cases,  we  must  now  add  yet 
another  of  wholly  different  character.  It  is  an  illustration  of 
eloquence  in  private  between  a  man  and  his  friend — the  subject 
and  his  sovereign,  if  we  do  not  misjudge  the  narrative  ;  but 
still  a  case,  where  the  theme,  the  occasion  and  the  person,  were 
all  important  enough  to  produce  a  grea  t  impression.     It  ir>  con- 


OF    THE    OLD    TESTAMENT.  "143 

tained  in  that  remarkable  passage,  where  Nathan  the  prophet 
appeared  before  David  with  a  message  from  the  Lord  respecting 
those  fearful  crimes  of  murder  and  adultery  which  had  just  been 
perpetrated  in  secret.  With  the  utmost  skill  and  delicacy  the 
prophet  introduces  his  subject  by  a  parable  of  the  most  touch- 
ing pathos  and  beauty,  setting  forth  a  case  of  glaring  injustice 
and  oppression.  This  parable,  which  excels  all  description, 
we  must  recite.  It  was  in  these  words — "  And  he  said  unto 
the  kiug,  There  were  two  men  in  one  city  ;  the  one  rich  and 
the  other  poor.  The  rich  man  had  exceeding  many  flocks  and 
herds.  Bat  the  poor  man  had  nothing  save  one  little  ewe-lamb 
which  he  had  bought  and  nourished  up  :  and  it  grew  up  to- 
gether with  him  and  with  his  children  ;  it  did  eat  of  his  own 
meat,  and  drank  of  his  own  cup,  and  lay  in  his  bosom,  and  was 
unto  him  as  a  daughter.  And  there  came  a  traveller  unto  the 
rich  man,  and  he  spared  to  take  of  his  own  flock  and  of 
his  own  herd,  to  dress  for  the  wayfaring  man  that  was  come 
unto  him  ;  but  took  the  poor  man's  lamb,  and  dressed  it  for 
the  man  that  was  come  to  him.  And  David's  anger  was 
greatly  kindled  against  the  man  :  and  he  said  to  Xathan,  As 
the  Lord  liveth,  the  man  that  hath  done  this  thing  shall  surely 
die.  And  he  shall  restore  the  lamb  four-fold,  because  he  did 
this  thing,  and  because  he  had  no  pity."  The  speaker  thus 
gains  from  the  unconscious  monarch  an  impartial  verdict  of 
self-condemnation  in  the  guise  of  a  sentence  of  death  against  the 
supposed  offender  :  and  then,  as  we  may  well  imagine,  suddenly 
changing  his  whole  look,  and  tone  and  gesture,  he  utters  that 
fearful  indictment  of  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors,  of  which 
every  sentence  seems  to  ring  with  the  words — "  Thou  art  the 
man,"  and  which  at  once  brought  from  the  king  the  bitter  con- 
fession— "I  have  sinned  against  the  Lord." 


M:4  ELOQUENCE    AND   ORATORY 

If  ever  words  were  barbed  arrows,  piercing  to  the  heart  of 
jonscions  guilt,  they  were  the  words  of  this  memorable  speech. 
If  ever  eloquence  mustered  all  its  forces  for  a  single  charge,  and 
poured  them  out  in  one  intense  and  burning  sentence,  it  was  ia 
this  expression — "  Thou  art  the  man."  We  might  suppose 
such  a  speech  to  have  been  taken  as  the  model  of  Junius  and 
all  kindred  writers.  It  has  in  fact  been  admired  and  imitated 
by  all  the  great  orators  of  all  ages  who  have  been  familiar  with 
the  Bible.  In  fact,  it  may  be  observed,  that  almost  all  great 
speakers  and  writers,  have  either  intentionally  or  unintention- 
ally, paid  the  Bible  the  compliment  of  borrowing  its  language 
for  their  passages  of  greatest  power.  When  they  would  give 
to  truth  its  most  cutting  power — when  they  would  put  barbs 
upon  the  arrows  of  invective — when  they  would  bring  an  argu- 
ment or  appeal  to  its  keenest  edge — when  they  would  wind  up 
a  magnificient  sentence  or  paragraph  by  a  still  more  magnifi- 
cent close — when  they  would  sum  up  all  in  one  expression 
which  everybody  should  understand  and  feel  and  remember 
forever — they  seem  to  have  felt  that  the  work  was  best  accom- 
plished by  some  apt  allusion,  or  illustration,  or  quotation,  taken 
from  the  word  of  God.  How  many  offenders,  great  and  small, 
have  had  the  truth  brought  home  to  their  consciences,  in  these 
very  words  of  Nathan  to  David — "Thou  art  the  man  !"  But 
often  as  they  have  been  quoted — often  as  they  have  been  imitated, 
no  orator  of  ancient  or  modern  times  has  ever  found  an  expres- 
sion of  greater  point  and  power.  Perhaps  the  nearest  parallel 
to  this  speech  might  be  found  in  that  bold  interview  between 
John  Knox  and  the  Queen  of  Scots,  in  which,  to  a  question  of 
the  queen,  the  reformer  replied—"  If  princes,  madam,  exceed 
their  bounds,  no  doubt  they  may  be  resisted  by  power."  It  v/as 
to  the  study  of  such  scriptural  models  as  this,  that  Knox  owed 


OF    THE    OLD    TESTAMENT.  145 

his  heroic  fidelity  as  a  preacher.  And  doubtless  to  the  same 
source,  an  orator  of  very  different  character,  John  Randolph 
of  Roanoke,  was  indebted  for  much  of  that  bold  defiant  elo- 
quence, with  which  at  times,  with  shrill,  unearthly  voice, 
piercing  eye  and  pointing  finger,  he  stood  like  a  spectre  from 
the  grave,  and  poured  out  vials  of  wrath  against  vice  and  cor- 
ruption in  the  high  places  of  political  power. 


Vil. HUSHAI    THE    ARCHITE. 

Passing  over  all  these  and  many  other  examples  of  effective 
thrilling  oratory  that  might  be  mentioned,  let  us  pause  to  notice 
one  more  remarkable  case  before  we  leave  the  Old  Testament. 
It  is  the  speech  of  Hushai  the  Archite,  the  friend  and  counsel- 
lor of  David.  It  was  delivered  in  the  audience  of  the  elders 
and  chief  men  of  Israel,  who  had  been  hastily  summoned  by 
Absalom  to  deliberate  on  the  state  of  public  affairs  at  the  time 
of  his  usurpation — perhaps  the  first  cabinet  council  of  which  we 
have  any  record  in  the  history  of  the  world.  Whether  we  con- 
sider the  crisis  which  called  forth  this  speech,  or  the  important 
results  which  flowed  from  it,  we  must  regard  it  as  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  instances  of  political  sagacity  and  oratorical 
skill  to  be  found  in  the  Bible.  We  know  of  no  speech  more 
worthy  of  a  profound  and  careful  study  by  the  admirers  of 
eloquence.  Upon  it  the  cause  and  kingdom,  the  life  and  earthly 
destiny  of  David,  turned  as  upon  a  pivot. 

The  rebellion  of  Absalom  had  succeeded  beyond  all  expecta- 
tion. David,  with  a  small  band  of  faithful  friends  and  of 
veteran  warriors,  had  hastily  retired  from  the  city  on  the 
upproach  of  his  ungrateful  son.     The  throne,  the  palace,   all 

7 


14:6  ELOQUENCE    AND    ORATORY 

Jerusalem,  had  fallen,  without  a  blow,  into  the  hands  of  that 
son.  Even  Ahithophel,  the  infallible  counsellor,  had  gone  over 
and  espoused  the  cause  of  the  usurper.  Elated  with  his  unex- 
pected success,  Absalom  calls  a  council  of  his  nobles  and  mighty 
men,  to  determine  what  was  best  to  be  done  in  reference  to 
David  and  his  few  followers,  now  on  their  retreat  towards  the 
Jordan. 

Ahithophel  gives  his  opinion  at  once,  and  with  his  usual  ener- 
getic decision.  He  counsels  action — immediate  and  hot  pursuit 
of  the  king.  He  urges,  that  with  twelve  thousand  chosen  men, 
himself  at  their  head,  tliej  should  pursue  David  that  very  night 
and  overtaking  him  while  weary  and  weak-handed,  should  kill 
him,  put  all  his  followers  to  flight,  and  thus  by  a  single  stroke 
render  all  further  opposition  impossible.  With  this  counsel, 
we  are  told,  Absalom  and  all  the  elders  of  Israel  were  well 
pleased.  For  they  saw  at  a  glance,  that  if  adopted,  it  must  be 
as  successful  as  it  was  decisive. 

But  there  was  another  honorable  counsellor  at  hand,  whose 
opinion  was  worth  being  heard  on  this  important  occasion. 
And  probably  with  a  view  to  confirm  what  had  already  been 
said  and  agreed  upon,  as  well  as  out  of  deference  to  so  distin- 
guished an  adherent,  Absalom  calls  him  in  to  hear  what  he  will 
say.  This  was  Hushai  the  Archite,  well  known  hitherto  as  a 
fast  friend  of  David,  but  who,  that  very  evening,  at  the  request 
of  the  king,  had  left  him,  returned  to  Jerusalem,  held  an  inter- 
view with  Absalom,  and  given  in  his  adhesion  to  the  usurper. 
He  it  is,  that  now  appears  in  the  council,  at  the  very  juncture 
when  Ahithophel's  counsel  is  on  the  point  of  being  carried,  and 
by  invitation  rises  to  give  his  opinion.  We  can  easily  imagine 
how  he  felt,  and  almost  how  he  looked  under  the  keen  search- 
ing glances  of  the  selfish,  ambitious,  black-hearted  men,  who 


OF   THE    OLD   TESTAMENT.  147 

were  already  thirsting  for  the  blood  of  their  old  king,  and  now 
reluctantly  paused  to  give  an  impatient  hearing  to  this  new 
comer. 

— "He  rose,  and  in  his  rising  seemed 

A  pillar  of  state  ;  deep  on  his  front  engraven, 

Deliberation  sat  and  public  care; 

And  princely  counsel  in  his  face  yet  shone." 

Never  did  an  orator  stand  up  under  more  embarrassing  cir- 
cumstances. Never  did  an  orator  undertake  a  more  difficult 
or  dangerous  task.  At  heart  the  fast  friend  of  David,  though 
professing  allegiance  to  Absalom,  he  stands  there  in  the  midst 
of  violent,  unprincipled  men,  and  by  one  wrong  word,  he  may 
not  only  sink  the  cause  of  his  master  but  forfeit  his  own  life. 
But  he  sees  that  a  crisis  has  come  ;  he  must  speak  now,  or 
never,  for  David.  He  sees  with  the  clear  intuition  of  an  experi- 
enced statesman,  that  if  AhithopheFs  counsel  is  followed,  all  is 
lost  ;  David's  kingdom  and  his  life  will  have  perished  together 
belore  to-morrow's  sun.  His  grand  object  then  is  to  gain  time 
— time  enough  for  David  to  make  his  escape  beyond  the 
Jordan.  To  do  this  he  must,  by  some  kind  of  argument  or 
appeal,  defeat  the  counsel  of  Ahithophel — that  counsel  which 
no  man  had  ever  defeated  before — that  counsel  which,  being 
followed,  had  never  been  known  to  fail — that  counsel  of  which 
the  Bible  says — "  it  was  as  if  a  man  had  inquired  at  the  oracle 
of  God." 

And  most  skillfully  did  he  accomplish  the  task.  His  speech 
shows  a  consummate  knowledge  of  human  nature — a  perfect 
insight  into  the  secret  motives  and  springs  of  action  of  the 
men  whom  he  addresses.  He  seems  to  have  discerned  at  a 
glance,  if  he  did  not  know  already,  the  precise  mental  and 
moral  calibre  of  the  men  with  whom  he  now  has  to  deal.     If 


14:8  ELOQUENCE    AND    OEATOKY 

we  had  no  otlier  information  touching"  the  character  of 
Absalom,  this  speech  would  furnish  the  key  by  which  to  read 
him  through  and  through.  He  does  not  attack  a  single  princi- 
ple advanced  by  Ahithophel,  nor  object  to  a  single  position 
except  one — the  bare  question  of  expediency.  That  he  knew 
was  the  only  principle  which  weighed  a  feather  in  the  minds  of 
his  auditors.  He  makes  no  appeal  to  any  feeling  of  filial  love, 
or  of  natural  compassion,  in  order  to  win  for  David  a  milder 
fate,  or  a  single  day  of  grace  :  because  he  knew  that  every 
heart  in  that  assembly  was  utterly  dead  to  any  such  appeal. 
Self-love  and  indulgence,  vanity  and  ambition,  were  the  govern- 
ing instincts  of  Absalom  and  his  band.  So  Hushai  sees  that 
he  must  gain  his  point  by  gaining  these.  xVccordingiy  he  makes 
such  an  appeal  to  their  hopes  and  fears — he  so  depicts  the 
perils  of  a  night  attack,  so  paints  the  well  remembered  prowess 
of  David  and  his  men  of  war,  making  them  feel  that  they 
might  fall  into  a  very  den  of  lions  by  the  way,  and  so  sets 
before  them  the  glory  of  a  general  battle  with  all  Israel  in  the 
field,  and  Absalom  as  commander-in-chief — that  they  begin  to 
wonder  at  the  rashness  of  Ahithophel's  policy  of  a  pursuit  at 
night,  and  to  think  that  there  will  be  not  only  safety,  but  even 
glory  in  delay.  His  speech  is  an  argument  grounding  itself 
upon  facts — well  known,  incontestable  facts — but  appealing  to 
the  imagination  and  to  all  the  passions  that  swayed  the  souls 
of  his  hearers. 

The  speech  itself  is  on  record,  all  embraced  in  seven  verses  in 
the  second  book  of  Samuel.  It  is  so  brief,  so  ingenious,  so 
effective,  so  masterly  every  way,  and  withal  so  seldom  read, 
that  we  must  now  quote  it  entire,  hoping  that  you  will  take  an 
early  opportunity  to  examine  it  in  the  Bible  at  your  leisure. 
We  shall  give  it  just  as  it  stands  in  our  Bibles,  only  interposing  a 


OF    THE    OLD    TESTAMENT.  149 

word  or  two  here  and  there,  to  complete  or  elucidate  the  mean- 
ing, which  words  will  be  readily  distinguished. 

"  And  Hushai  said,  the  counsel  that  xlhithophel  hath  given 
LS  not  good  at  this  time.  For,  said  Hushai,  thou  knowest  thy 
father  and  his  men,  that  they  are  mighty  men,  and  they  are 
(even  now)  chafed  in  their  minds  as  a  bear  robbed  of  her 
whelps  in  the  field  ;  and  thy  father  is  a  man  of  war,  and  will 
not  lodge  with  the  people  (unguarded  and  exposed).  Behold  he 
is  hid  now  in  some  pit,  or  in  some  other  place  (well  defended 
and  safe)  ;  and  it  will  come  to  pass,  when  some  of  them  (who 
would  pursue  him)  be  overthrown  at  the  first,  that  whosoever 
heareth  it,  will  say,  there  is  a  slaughter  among  the  people  that 
follow  Absalom.  And  (then)  he  also  that  is  valiant,  whose 
heart  is  as  the  heart  of  a  lion  shall  utterly  melt  :  for  all  Israel 
knoweth  that  thy  father  is  a  mighty  man,  and  they  that  are 
with  him  are  valiant  men.  Therefore  I  counsel,  that  all  Israel, 
be  generally  gathered  unto  thee,  from  Dan  even  to  Beersheba, 
as  the  sand  that  is  by  the  sea  for  multitude  :  and  that  thou  go 
to  battle  in  thine  own  person  (getting  to  thyself  all  the  glory 
of  a  conqueror).  So  shall  we  come  upon  him  in  some  place 
where  he  shall  be  found,  and  we  will  light  upon  him  as  the  dew 
falleth  on  the  ground  ;  and  of  him  and  of  all  the  men  that  are 
with  him,  there  shall  not  be  left  so  much  as  one.  Moreover,  if 
he  be  gotten  into  a  city,  then  shall  all  Israel  bring  ropes  to  that 
city,  and  we  will  draw  it  into  the  river,  until  there  be  not  one 
small  stone  found  there." 

For  aught  we  know,  this  may  be  but  the  brief  outline  of  the 
speech,  which  the  consummate  orator  filled  up  at  length  :  for 
it  is  easy  to  see  with  what  power  of  argument,  imagination 
and  passion  he  might  have  dwelt  on  each  successive  idea.  Or 
these   may   be   all   the  words   he   uttered — his   looks,  tones, 


150  ELOQUENCE  AND  ORATORY 

gestures  and  pauses  doing  all  the  rest.  But  short  or  long,  when 
his  speech  was  ended,  his  work  was  done.  The  triumph  was 
complete.  The  effect  was  overwhelming.  **  Then  Absalom 
and  all  the  men  of  Israel  said,  the  counsel  of  Hushai  the  Archite 
is  better  than  the  counsel  of  Ahithophel."  And  by  way  of 
solution  for  an  issue  so  wonderful,  the  sacred  historian  then 
adds,  that  the  "  Lord  had  appointed  to  defeat  the  good  or  wise 
counsel  of  Ahithophel,  to  the  intent  that  the  Lord  might  bring 
evil  upon  Absalom,"  We  need  not  pursue  the  narrative,  you 
know  the  result  :  Absalom  perished  in  that  battle  in  which  he 
had  hoped  to  win  the  glory  of  a  conqueror  :  and  David  was 
restored  to  his  throne.  But  the  single  point  on  which  all  these 
great  events  hung,  was  the  speech  of  Hushai — a  speech  perhaps 
only  five  ftiinutes  long  ! 

Now  in  these  days  of  windy  words  and  long  speeches,  when 
all  men  claim  to  be  eloquent  and  talk  by  the  hour,  when 
oratory  is  often  a  compound  of  one  grain  of  sense  to  a  hundred 
weight  of  verbiage  and  nonsense,  we  are  scarcely  prepared  to 
appreciate  the  power  of  so  short  a  speech  as  this.  Its  heavy 
artillery  is  fired,  not  by  the  hour,  but  by  the  minute.  The 
whole  work  of  the  orator  was  probably  done  in  far  less  time 
than  it  has  taken  us  to  describe  it.  But  never  did  human  elo- 
quence win  a  more  signal  and  triumphant  victory.  In  force 
and  brevity,  it  calls  to  mind  the  speeches  of  our  own  great 
Franklin,  who  is  said  never  to  have  spoken  above  fifteen 
minutes  on  any  occasion,  and  never  to  have  lost  a  question  on 
which  he  had  spoken.  We  believe  the  Congress  of  our  day, 
have  discovered  an  exact  mathematical  formula  for  the  expres- 
sion of  oratory — adopting  one  hour  as  the  maximum  and  mini- 
mum of  every  speech,  on  every  subject  great  and  small. 

This  short  speech  of  Hushai  reminds  us  of  an  interesting 


OF   THE   OLD   TESTAMENT.  151 

passage  in  Macaulay's  History  of  England.  In  his  account  of 
the  celebrated  trial  of  the  Seven  Bishops — a  trial  which  had 
drav/n  together  the  highest  eloquence  and  genius  and  legal 
learning  of  the  times,  the  historian  speaks  of  a  young  lawyer, 
John  Somers,  who  as  yet  had  been  unknown  to  fame. 
*'  Somers  rose  last.  He  spoke  little  more  than  five  minutes, 
but  every  word  was  full  of  weighty  matter  ;  and  when  he  sat 
down,  his  reputation  as  an  orator  and  a  constitutional  lawyer 
was  established."  The  side  on  which  he  pleaded  in  that  case, 
also  gained  the  day. 

As  it  regards  the  great  public  interests  which  were  at  stake  on 
this  speech  of  Hushai,  and  the  personal  courage  displayed  by  the 
orator,  we  hardly  know  where  to  find  a  parallel.  The  nearest  that 
now  recurs  to  us,  though  still  differing  in  many  points,  is  the 
celebrated  speech  of  Patrick  Henry  in  the  Virginia  House  of  Bur- 
gesses of  1765,  when  he  offered  the  first  resolution  ever  offered 
in  America,  against  the  British  Stamp  Act,  and  amidst  cries  of 
"  Treason  1  Treason  !"  from  all  parts  of  the  house,  exclaimed, 
"  Caesar  had  his  Brutus,  Charles  the  First  his  Cromwell,  and  George 
the  Third  may  profit  by  their  example."  Wlio  then  could 
calculate,  or  who  now,  the  precise  amount  of  impression  made 
by  that  single  burst  of  eloquence  upon  the  destiny  of  America 
and  of  the  human  race  ?  In  like  manner  who  can  tell  us 
what  the  history  of  Israel  and  of  the  world  might  have  been,  if 
the  speech  of  Hushai  had  never  been  delivered  in  the  council  of 
Absalom  ? 

But  brief  and  powerful  as  was  the  plea  of  Somers  on  th 
Bishops'  trial  ;  brief  and   effective   as  were  the  arguments  of 
Franklin  in  our  halls  of  legislation  ;  brief  and  sublime  as  were 
the  orders  of  Napoleon  or  the  harangues  of  Cromwell  to  his 
soldiers  on  the   eve   of  battle  ;  brief,  personal  and  fearless  as 


152  THE  ELOQUENT  0EAT0K8 

was  this  warning  of  Henrj  in  the  house  of  Burgesses — still, 
when  we  weigh  all  the  circumstances  of  brevity,  difficulty,  dan- 
ger, embarrassment,  power  and  success,  Hushai  the  Archite 
must  be  acknowledged  to  stand  at  the  head  of  this  kind  of  elo- 
quence— at  once  the  father  and  the  prince  of  all  those  orators, 
who,  by  a  single  speech,  have  changed  the  destiny  of  states  and 
empires. 

This  closes  our  survey  of  the  eloquence  and  orators  of  the 
Old  Testament.  And  with  this,  it  will  perhaps  be  best  for  us, 
though  somewhat  abruptly  and  contrary  to  the  original  design, 
to  close  the  present  chapter.  The  theme  is  so  rich,  and  it  has 
grown  upon  our  hands,  so  far  beyond  any  expectation  enter- 
tained at  the  beginning  of  our  review,  that  we  cannot  now, 
without  crowding  too  much  into  a  single  chapter,  present 
anything  like  an  adequate,  corresponding  view  of  the  eloquent 
orators  of  the  New  Testament.  Here  then  let  us  pause,  reserv- 
ing the  eloquence  of  the  New  Testament  for  separate  and  fuller 
discussion  in  the  next  chapter. 


OF   THE    NEW    TESTAMENT.  153 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE  ELOQUENT  ORATORS  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 

Fxamples  of  Perverted  Eloquence— Herod  and  Tertullus— Speech  of  Gamaliel— The  EIo. 
quent  Apollos— Stephen's  Address  to  the  Council — Preaching  of  John  the  Baptist- 
Peter  as  an  Orator — Speech  of  James  before  the  Synod— The  Pvecorder  or  Town- 
clerk  of  Ephesus— The  Eloquence  of  Paul— Paul  on  Mars  Hill— Discourses  of  our 
Lord — Conclusion. 

Having  had  occasion  to  divide  our  subject  into  two  parts, 
let  us  now  proceed  to  an  examination  of  the  eloquent  orators  of 
the  New  Testament,  in  the  light  of  tliose  general  character- 
istics and  illustrations  of  eloquence  which  have  already  been 
pointed  out.  Amongst  the  multitude  of  public  speakers  who 
figure  upon  its  pages,  entitled  to  wear  the  stany  crown  of  ora- 
tory, it  must  suffice  to  sketch  only  a  few  of  the  most  prominent 
and  remarkable  examples.  And  for  the  sake  of  the  contrast 
which  it  may  furnish,  let  us  begin  with  the  case  of  those  who 
claimed,  but  were  not  entitled  to  that  crown  :  for  here,  as  in 
almost  every  thing  else,  the  Bible  teaches  by  contrast,  giving 
us  samples  of  the  bad  mingled  with  the  good  and  the  noble. 


1. EXAMPLES    OF     PERVERTED     ELOQUENCE HEROD    AND 

TERTULLUS. 

There  are  two,  expressly  mentioned  as  orators  in  the  New 
Tes^^ament,  who  have  gained  the  title  only  by  their  abuse  of  the 

7* 


154:  THE  ELOQUENT   0RAT0K8 

gift,  and  wbose  names  on  the  sacred  pages  enjoy  only  that  kind 
of  immortality  which  unusual  infamy  gives  to  the  tyrant,  or 
superlative  baseness  to  the  sycophantic  sophist.  They  are  king 
Herod  and  Tertullus — the  one  a  tool  in  the  hands  of  the  wicked, 
the  other  a  despot  whose  hands  were  stained  with  the  blood  of 
the  righteous.  In  the  twenty-fourth  chapter  of  the  book  of 
Acts,  we  read  of  a  "certain  orator  named  Tertullus" — a  Roman 
orator  as  the  name  indicates,  who,  hired  by  the  Jewish  priest- 
hood for  the  purpose,  went  down  to  Csesarea,  to  prosecute  the 
Apostle  Paul  when  he  was  on  trial  there  before  the  Roman 
governor  Felix.  He  was  one  of  those  special  pleaders,  to  be 
found  in  every  age,  whose  talents  are  offered  for  sale  on  all  oc- 
casions to  the  highest  bidder,  and  are  easily  purchased  by 
wealth  and  power,  regardless  of  truth  or  justice,  right  or 
wrong  ;  and  who,  from  long  practice  as  well  as  natural  instinct, 
can  always  speak  better  on  the  side  of  falsehood  than  of  truth. 
His  object  was  to  convict  Paul  of  sedition,  heresy  and  profana- 
tion ;  and  the  weapon  with  which  he  attempted  it,  was  flattery — 
foul  and  fulsome  adulation  of  the  noble  virtues  and  worthy 
deeds  and  amiable  character  of  Felix — a  man  who  had  once 
been  the  base-born  freedman  of  the  Emperor  Claudius,  and  who 
now,  according  to  Tacitus,  "  exercised  royal  authority  with  the 
spirit  of  a  slave,  and  indulged  himself  in  every  species  of  cruelty 
and  lust."  It  is  instructive  to  see  how  this  specious  rhetorician — 
this  fit  descendant  of  the  father  of  lies — this  hanger-on  to  the 
skirts  of  men  in  power — this  disgrace  of  a  noble  profession, 
thought,  by  bending  the  supple  hinges  of  the  knee,  and  by  the 
smooth  and  oily  common-places  of  flattery,  to  carry  the  day,  as 
it  were  by  implication,  against  such  a  man  as  Paul ! 

But  as  the  result  proved,  the  eloquence  of  Tertullus  was  no 
match  for  Paul's,  even  at  the  corrupt  bar  of  Felix.     There  is 


OF   THE    NEW    TESTAMENT.  155 

not  a  finer  contrast  in  all  the  Bible  than  is  here  presented  be 
tween  the  Apostle's  dignified  and  manly  defence,  and  this  low 
judicial  fawning  of  his  mercenary  accuser.  Doubtless  many 
persons,  have  thought  the  eloquence  of  Rome  to  be  vastly 
superior  to  the  eloquence  of  Jerusalem.  But  on  this,  the  only 
occasion  where  we  have  ever  seen  the  two  in  conflict,  it  is  clear, 
that  the  Hebrew  won  a  perfect  triumph  over  the  Roman  ora- 
tor. We  must  not  however  do  Rome  the  injustice  to  take  Ter- 
tullus  as  a  fair  sample  of  her  oratory.  Indeed  the  world  would 
never  have  heard  of  him  but  for  Paul.  His  name  lives  on  the 
page  of  sacred  history  by  an  unexpected  immortality,  because 
linked  with  a  man  whom  it  was  his  trade  to  destroy  ;  so  that 
"  a  certain  TertuUus  "  becomes,  without  a  rival,  the  Tertullus 
and  the  sycophant  of  the  New  Testament  forevermore,  AYith 
a  name  as  euphonious  as  that  of  Tully,  he  has  come  down  to 
us  distinguished  as  the  Scripture  type  and  representative  of  all 
that  class  of  slack-twisted  special  pleaders  who  are  eloquent  for 
pay,  and  whose  eloquence  finds  vent  in  a  hypocritical  adulation 
of  the  possessors  of  wealth  and  power. 

The  other  example  of  perverted  eloquence  is  that  of  King 
Herod,  recorded  ia  the  twelfth  chapter  of  Acts.  This  cruel 
and  ambitious  tyrant,  whose  hands  were  stained  with  the  blood 
of  the  Apostle  James,  and  would  have  been  stained  with 
Peter's  also,  but  for  his  miraculous  deliverance  from  prison, 
seems  to  have  possessed,  in  a  high  degree,  the  gift  of  popular 
eloquence  ;  at  least  in  a  high  degree  for  a  king.  For  we  are 
informed  by  the  sacred  writer,  that,  "  upon  a  set  day,  Herod, 
arrayed  in  royal  apparel,  sat  upon  his  throne  and  made  an 
oration  unto  the  men  who  had  come  from  Tyre  and  Sidon. 
And  the  people  gave  a  shout,  saying.  It  is  the  voice  of  God, 
and  not  of  a  man.     And  immediately  the  angel  of  the  Lord 


156  THE  ELOQUENT  OEATOES 

smote  him,  because  he  gave  not  God  the  glory  ;  and  he  was 
eaten  up  of  worms  and  gave  up  the  ghost." 

Who  can  read  this  account  without  feeling  that  it  is  a  fear- 
ful thing  to  abuse  the  gift  of  eloquence,  without  feeling  that  the 
Almighty  hath  set  the  seal  of  his  hottest  displeasure  upon  the 
man  who  does  so  ?  This  horrible  fate — perhaps  the  most  horri- 
ble and  shocking  recorded  in  the  Bible,  seems  to  have  fallen 
upon  Herod,  to  give  the  world  a  warning  of  the  awful  responsi- 
bility which  those  incur,  who  prostitute  to  base  and  selfish 
purposes,  the  noble  endowments  of  eloquence.  In  his  vanity, 
and  pride,  and  royalty,  he  had,  like  Nebuchadnezzar  of  old, 
though  with  far  less  excuse,  blasphemously  arrogated  to  him- 
self the  prerogatives  of  deity.  Instead  of  rending  his  clothes, 
restraining  the  people,  and  giving  God  the  glory,  as  Paul  and 
Barnabas  did  at  Lystra,  when  the  priests  of  Jupiter  and  Mer- 
cury cried,  "  The  gods  have  come  down  among  men,"  and  were 
about  to  offer  sacrifices  to  them — Herod  receives,  unrebuked, 
the  idolatrous  shout  of  the  multitude,  "It  is  the  voice  of  God, 
and  not  of  man."  It  was  probably  the  very  homage  he  had 
courted.  And  for  receiving  it  without  rebuke,  he  was  rebuked 
from  heaven,  so  as  to  stand  to  all  posterity,  like  Absalom  and 
Catiline,  and  Mirabeau  and  Burr,  a  very  name  for  blasted  ambi- 
tion and  talents  thrown  away.  There  is  nothing  in  the  history 
of  man,  which  Divine  Providence  has  more  frequently  and 
signally  frowned  upon,  than  this  vain-glorious  self-idolatry. 
Nebuchadnezzar  thought  himself  almost  a  God,  because  of 
'  great  Babylon  which  he  had  built  ;"  and  he  was  driven  out,  be- 
reft of  reason,  to  find  a  shelter  among  the  beasts  of  the  field, 
Alexander  wished  the  world  to  think  him  a  god,  because  he 
had  conquered  it  ;  and  soon  reaped  a  just  reward  in  dying,  "  as 
the  fool  dieth,"  by  drunkenness.    Napoleon  tried  the  same  experi- 


OF   THE    NEW   TESTAMENT.  157 

ment  of  self-deification,  in  modern  times,  and  while  he  thought 
that  destiny  was  his  own,  Divine  providence  was  only  spreading 
around  him  those  meshes  which  at  last  caught  and  caged  him 
forever.  So  on  a  scale  infinitely  smaller,  this  blood-stained 
Herod  deemed  himself  worthy  to  be  called  a  god,  because  he 
had  made  a  great  speech  ;  and  for  it  he  was  devoured  by 
worms.  You  remember,  that  the  temptation  held  out  as  a  bait 
at  the  commission  of  the  first  sin  in  Eden,  was — "ye  shall  be 
as  gods  :''  and  ever  since  that  day,  whenever  this  experiment  of 
pride  has  been  repeated,  the  Providence  of  God  has  ponred  coa- 
tempt  upon  the  argument  of  Satan,  by  leaving  those  who  would 
be  gods  to  become  fools  or  brutes.  Well  did  the  ancient  pro- 
phet say — "  Let  not  the  wise  man  glory  in  his  wisdom,  neither 
let  the  mighty  man  glory  in  his  might  ;  let  not  the  rich  man 
glory  in  his  riches,  but  let  him  that  glorieth  glory  in  the 
Lord." 

II. THE    SPEECH    OF    GAMALIEL. 

But  let  US  notice  next  the  speech  of  Gamaliel  before  the 
great  Sanhedrim,  the  highest  council  of  the  Jews,  when  the 
Apostles,  a  little  after  the  day  of  Pentecost,  were  arrested 
and  brought  before  that  body  for  trial.  This  speech,  as 
recorded,  was  exceedingly  brief,  all  being  comprised  in  five 
Tcrses  ;  but  it  is  one,  which,  by  its  spirit  of  moderation  as  well 
as  by  the  truth  of  its  sentiments,  reflects  great  credit  upon  its 
author.  It  is  full  of  practical  common  sense,  sound  views  of 
policy,  and  faith  in  the  overruling  providence  of  God  ;  whilst 
its  doc^.rine  of  religious  toleration  must  have  been  greatly  in 
advance  of  the  times.  The  speech  is  an  argument,  sustained 
by  several  historical  cases,  for  letting  the  Apostles  alone,  or 


158  THE  ELOQUENT  0RAT0E9 

leaving  them  to  the  providence  of  God,  under  the  conviction 
that  their  doctrine,  if  of  men,  would  soon  come  to  naught,  but 
if  of  God,  could  not  be  successfully  resisted.  Jew  as  he  was, 
and  a  Pharisee  of  the  highest  style,  his  mind  seems  very  clearly 
to  have  grasped  that  grand  truth  of  j)olitical  and  ecclesiastical 
philosophy,  which  the  church  and  the  world  have  been  so  slow 
to  learn — that  persecution  can  never  put  down  a  good  cause, 
and  is  always  sure  to  help  a  bad  one.  When  we  read  this  wise 
and  moderate  speech,  we  wonder  how  such  a  persecutor  as  Saul 
of  Tarsus  could  have  proceeded  from  the  school  of  such  a 
master.  This,  however,  may  be  but  another  illustration  of  the 
very  common  fact,  that  the  public  speeches  of  great  men  may  be 
much  better  than  their  practice  or  their  creed.  Be  this,  how- 
ever, as  it  may,  the  address  of  Gamaliel  to  the  council,  on  the 
present  occasion,  was  a  noble  and  successful  effort  on  the  side 
of  right  and  justice,  well  worthy  of  the  man  who  was  univer- 
sally regarded  by  his  countrymen  as  the  most  learned  and  dis- 
tinguished doctor  of  the  law  then  living. 

It  evidently  saved  the  Apostles  from  further  imprisonment, 
and  most  likely  from  death  at  the  instant.  For  when  Gamaliel 
rose  to  speak,  the  body  was  filled  with  rage  and  clamoring  for 
their  destruction.  We  have  only  to  consider  the  materials  of 
which  that  body  was  composed,  and  the  circumstances  under 
which  the  speaker  interposed  his  counsel,  to  see  how  great 
must  have  been  his  weight  of  character  and  weight  of  words, 
to  bring  about  such  a  result  as  their  release.  Gamaliel  was  a 
Pharisee,  whilst  the  Sadducean  party  now  had  a  majority  and 
a  great  ascendency  in  the  Sanhedrim,  and  were  greatly  exas- 
perated with  the  Apostles  for  preaching  that  doctrine  which 
they  abhorred  the  most — the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  The 
apostles  who  had  been  before  them  on  a  former  occasion,  not 


OF   THE   NEW   TESTAMENT.  159 

only  preached  that  doctrine  boldly  to  their  faces,  as  they  had 
done  to  all  Jerusalem,  but  they  had  openly  on  both  occasions 
set  their  authority  at  defiance,  and  charged  thera  explicitly  with 
tke  murder  of  Jesus.  So  that  now  they  felt  that  something 
decisive  must  be  done  :  and  we  are  told,  "  they  took  counsel 
to  slay  them."  At  this  critical  juncture,  Gamaliel,  although 
belonging  to  a  party  in  the  minority,  stood  up  and  delivered 
his  speech,  which  may  be  read  at  your  leisure,  and  need  not  be 
recited  now.  He  was  as  successful  in  changing  the  mind  of  this 
council  as  Hushai  had  been  in  changing  the  council  of 
Absalom.  Nothing  can  reveal  more  clearly  the  power  of  right 
words,  and  the  influence  of  a  wise  counsellor,  when  brouji-ht  to 
bear  at  the  right  time  and  place.  When  we  know  the  temper 
of  the  body  he  had  to  address,  and  know  the  position  he  occu- 
pied there,  we  can  only  account  for  the  fact  stated  at  the  close, 
that  "  to  him  they  agreed,"  by  supposing,  either  that  this  was  a 
speech  of  extraordinary  power,  or  that  the  orator  was  a  man 
of  extraordinary  character  and  influence.  The  latter,  we  know 
to  have  been  true,  and  doubtless  the  former  was  also.  We 
take  this  speech  of  Gamaliel,  as  an  admirable  example  of  what 
may  be  called  deliberative  eloquence — succinct,  practical,  cau- 
tious and  effective. 

This  is  one  of  the  rarest,  as  it  is  one  of  the  noblest  and  most 
useful  kinds  of  eloquence.  Happy  is  the  church,  happy  the  nation, 
whose  councils  are  adorned  by  the  presence  of  these  Nestors  and 
Gamaliels  of  eloquence  to  direct,  or  hold  in  check  the  ardor  of 
younger  men  !  This  style  of  eloquence  depends  upon  a  clear, 
sound  judgment,  integrity  of  character,  and,  for  the  most  part, 
the  ripened  experience  of  age.  Such  was  the  eloquence  of 
Franklin.  Such  was  the  eloquence  of  Dr.  Witherspoon,  both 
in  our  civil  and  ecclesiastical  councils,  who   waited  till  others 


160  THE  ELOQUENT  0RAT0E8 

had  expressed  their  opinions,  and  then,  "  in  a  consise,  clear  and 
forcible  manner,  gave  his  views,  and  generally  with  a  unani- 
mous result."  And  such  eloquence  too  was  often  heard  in  the 
calm  clear  voices  of  those  two  venerable  men,  so  long  associated 
in  life  and  so  little  separated  in  their  deaths — Drs.  Miller  and 
Alexander. 

III. ^THE  ELOQUENT  AP0LL03 

But  it  is  time  for  us  to  approach  another  interesting  branch 
of  our  subject — the  eloquence  of  preaching  and  of  the  pulpit. 
As  a  matter  of  course  it  is  in  the  New  Testament  that  we  find 
the  liighest  models  of  this  species  of  oratory.  Because  the 
preaching  of  the  cross  is  called  foolishness,  and  "  it  pleased 
God  by  the  foolishness  of  preaching  to  save  them  that  be- 
lieve," we  are  not  to  infer,  that  there  was  nothing  attractive 
and  powerful  in  the  eloquence  of  the  Apostles  and  first  preach- 
ers of  Christianity.  We  know,  that  tbeir  Divine  master  had 
promised  to  give  them  a  "mouth  and  wisdom  which  all  their 
adversaries  should  not  be  able  to  gainsay  nor  resist."  And  so 
we  find  them  in  fact,  speaking  with  a  freedom  and  boldness 
from  the  very  first,  which  astonished  the  rulers  and  councils 
before  whom  they  were  brought.  If  we  had  no  direct  testi- 
mony on  the  point,  it  would  be  natural  to  conclude,  that  men 
who  spoke  "  in  demonstration  of  the  spirit  and  with  power," 
must  have  spoken  eloquently.  But  we  are  not  left  to  mere  infer- 
ences. We  know,  for  example,  on  the  testimony  of  Scrip- 
ture, that  Apollos  was  "an  eloquent  man,"  although  we  have 
no  report  of  any  of  his  sermons. 

Apollos  was  one  of  the  earliest  ministers  of  the  church  of 
Corinth.     So  far  as  we  are  able  to  learn  his  character  from  a 


OF   THE    NEW    TESTAMENT.  161 

few  brief  notices  on  the  sacred  pages,  he  seems  to  have  some- 
what resembled  the  apostle  Paul,  in  enthusiasm,  eloquence  and 
diversified  learning.  Paul  mentions  him  more  than  once  in  his 
epistles.  He  rebukes  the  several  parties  in  the  Corinthian 
church  for  saying,  "I  am  of  Paul,  and  another  I  am  of  Apollos, 
and  another  I  am  of  Cephas  ;"  and  asks,  "  Who  then  is  Paul, 
and  who  is  Apollos,  but  ministers  by  whom  ye  believed  ?"  He 
then  adds,  "  I  have  planted,  Apollos  watered,  and  God  gave 
the  increase."  From  this  alone  it  is  evident  that  Apollos  was  a 
faithful  and  succesful  minister  of  the  gospel.  But  we  have  a 
much  fuller  account  of  him  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  We 
there  read,  that  "  a  certain  Jew,  Apollos,  born  at  Alexandria, 
an  eloquent  man,  and  mighty  in  the  Scriptures,  came  to  Ephe- 
sus.  This  man  was  instructed  in  the  way  of  the  Lord  ;  and 
being  fervent  in  the  spirit,  he  spake  and  taught  diligently  the 
things  of  the  Lord,  knowing  only  the  baptism  of  John.  And  he 
began  to  speak  boldly  in  the  synagogues,  whom  when  Aquila 
and  Priscilla  had  heard,  they  took  him  unto  them,  and  ex- 
pounded to  him  the  way  of  the  Lord  more  perfectly.  And 
when  he  was  come  unto  Achaia,  he  helped  them  much,  who 
had  believed  through  grace.  For  he  mightily  convinced  the 
Jews,  and  that  publicly,  showing  by  the  Scriptures  that  Jesus 
was  the  Christ." 

Being  thus  a  Jew  by  birth,  and  a  native  of  Alexandria,  the 
seat  of  Egyptian  learning,  and  enjoying,  like  Paul,  the  double 
advantage  of  being  deeply  read  in  the  Jewish  scriptures  and 
in  the  literature  of  foreign  countries  (if,  as  it  is  natural  to  do, 
we  suppose  him  also  to  have  been  acquainted  with  Grecian 
learning,  as  he  was  with  Jewish  and  Egyptian),  he  must  have 
been  eminently  fitted  to  exercise  his  ministry  in  the  refined  cities 
of  Ephesus  and  Corinth.  Possessing  also  an  eloquent  tongue,  and 
as  we  infer  from  the  narrative,  unusual  powers  of  reasoning,  he 


lo2  THE  ELOQUENT  ORATORS 

must  have  been  eminently  successful  as  a  preacher.  It  is  not 
wonderful,  thus  endowed,  that  he  should  be  mentioned  as  hold- 
ing rank  with  the  apostles  Paul  and  Cephas  in  the  public  esti- 
mation at  Corinth.  He  belongs  to  a  class  of  characters  men- 
tioned in  Scripture  of  whom  just  enough  is  known  to  excite 
curiosity  and  make  us  greatly  desire  to  know  more.  All  that 
we  know  of  him,  though  little,  is  very  good  ;  and  from  this  it 
is  safe  to  infer  that  Apollos  was  one  of  the  most  eloquent 
and  accomplished  preachers  of  the  primitive  church 


IV. — Stephen's  address  to  the  council. 

Going  back,  somewhat,  in  the  order  of  events,  we  find 
another  name,  worthy  of  honorable  mention  on  the  roll  of 
New  Testament  orators.  It  is  that  of  Stephen,  one  of  the  first 
deacons,  and  the  very  first  martyr,  of  the  Christian  church. 
Though  not  immediately  called  by  his  office  to  preach  the  gos- 
pel, yet  he  appears,  very  soon  after  being  appointed  a  deacon, 
to  have  engaged  in  the  discussions  of  the  synagogue,  where  he 
reasoned  with  the  people,  and  defended  the  cause  of  his  Mas- 
ter with  such  wisdom  and  spirit,  that  his  opponents,  unable  to 
answer  him  or  put  him  down  by  words,  hurried  him  away  for 
condemnation  to  the  great  council.  His  speech  before  that 
body,  on  the  charge  of  blasphemy,  as  alleged  by  suborned  wit- 
nesses, was  delivered  in  answer  to  the  question  of  the  high 
priest,  its  presiding  officer — "  Are  these  things  so  ?"  In  the 
apprehension  of  all  present,  who  had  heard  the  awful  charges, 
that  question  was  virtually  a  demand,  why  sentence  of  death 
should  not  be  passed  against  him  ;  for  their  law  had  but  one 
punishment  for  such  a  crime  when  proved. 

We  know  not  what  his  whole  argument  would  have  been,  if 


OF   THE    NEW    TESTAMENT.  163 

he  had  not  boen  interrupted  ;  but  if  wo  may  judge  by  that 
part  of  it  which  he  was  parmitted  to  deliver,  it  must  have  been 
a  sublime  and  eloquent  vindicatiou.  Interrupted  as  it  was,  it 
fills  up  the  whole  of  the  seventh  chapter  of  the  Acts,  and  with 
the  exception  of  some  of  our  Saviour's  discourses,  it  has  the  dis- 
tinction of  being  the  longest  speech  recorded  in  the  Bible.  Paul, 
then  a  young  man,  was  present  and  heard  it,  and  had  probably 
himself  been  disputing  with  Stephen  in  the  synagogue.  Paul,  no 
doubt  remembering  it  well  long  afterwards,  communicated  it  to 
Luke,  who  was  thus  enabled  to  report  it  accurately  and  fully. 
The  speech  evidently  glows  with  all  the  enthusiasm  of  elo- 
quence. Though  the  speaker  was  fully  aware  of  his  perilous 
position — that  on  his  words  his  life  hung  as  by  a  thread — ^}'et 
he  betrays  no  indication  of  embarxassment,  or  haste  or  fear. 
AVith  the  utmost  deference  to  the  rulers  who  sat  to  judge  him, 
and  with  perfect  self-possession,  he  takes  for  his  theme  "  the 
God  of  Gtlory,"  and  with  devout  and  patriotic  ardor,  traces 
the  long  line  of  his  providences  towards  "  the  seed  of  Abraham 
his  chosen." 

Before  such  an  audience,  who  can  imagine  a  more  thrilling 
theme,  or  a  more  exciting  scene.  Arraigned  to  answer  for  his 
life  to  the  charge  of  blasphemy  against  Moses  and  the  law,  and 
the  God  of  Israel — brought  to  the  bar  of  that  august  Sanhe- 
drim, whose  long  white  beards  and  robes  of  oflQce  gave  it  the 
aspect  of  infallible  wisdom — inspired  himself  with  a  wisdom 
more  than  mortal  under  the  teachings  of  the  Holy  Ghost — he 
stood,  as  his  Saviour  had  done  in  that  same  presence,  calm, 
serene,  self-composed  and  trusting  in  God — his  face  shining  as 
it  had  been  the  face  of  an  angel,  his  eye  lifted  up  to  those  hea- 
vens, where  a  little  after  he  saw  Jesus  standing  on  the  right 
hand  of  the  eternal  throne,  his  vcice  rising  and  sweUiug  respon* 


164  THE  ELOQUENT   OltATOKS 

sive  to  all  the  deep  emotions  of  a  soul  filled  with  the  love  of 
Clirist.  Suddenly,  and  apparently  in  the  midst  of  his  discourse, 
he  changes  his  tone  into  one  of  severe  rebuke.  At  this  point, 
says  Dr.  Dick,  "  It  is  probable  that  his  hearers  gave  signs  of 
impatience  ;  and  Stephen  perceiving  that  they  were  about  to 
interrupt  him,  seized  the  moments  which  remained  to  him,  to 
tell  them  a  few  unwelcome  truths,  which  would  serve  as  his 
dying  testimony  against  the  incorrigible  enemies  of  his  Saviour." 
Accordingly,  he  makes  no  allusion  to  the  charges  preferred 
against  himself,  but  lays  at  their  own  door  the  much  more 
awful  charge  of  having  murdered  the  Son  of  God.  Feeling 
that  the  cause  of  truth  demanded  such  fidelity,  whatever  might 
be  the  consequence  to  himself,  he  bursts  forth  into  the  follow- 
ing terrible  invective  :  "  Ye  stiff-necked  and  uncircumcised  in 
heart  and  ears,  ye  do  always  resist  the  Holy  Ghost :  as  your 
fathers  did,  so  do  ye.  Which  of  the  prophets  have  not  your 
fathers  persecuted  ?  and  they  have  slain  them  which  showed 
before  of  the  coming  of  the  Just  One  ;  of  whom  ye  have  been 
betrayers  and  murderers  ;  who  have  received  the  law  by  the 
disposition  of  angels  and  have  not  kept  it." 

This  was  more  than  they  could  bear.  No  Gamaliel,  evea 
had  he  been  present,  and  so  disposed,  was  then  able  to  pour 
into  their  counsels  a  spirit  of  moderation  and  wisdom.  All 
further  formalities  of  law  were  stopped.  They  could  not  wait 
to  take  a  vote.  They  were  clamorous  for  blood.  Says  the 
record,  "  They  were  cut  to  the  heart,  and  gnashed  on  him  with 
their  teeth.  They  cried  out  with  a  loud  voice,  stopped  their 
ears  and  ran  upon  him  with  one  accord,  and  cast  him  out  of 
the  city  and  stoned  him."  And  as  if  to  mark  the  greatness  of 
the  contrast  between  the  bigoted  rage  of  the  persecutor  and  the 
peaceful  spirit  of  the  victim,  the  sacred  writer  adds  :  "Ho 


OF    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT.  165 

called  upon  God,  saying,  '  Lord  Jesus,  receive  my  spirit  ;'  and 
kneeling  down  he  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  *  Lord,  la!^  not  this 
sin  to  their  charge.'  And  when  he  said  this,  he  fell  asleep." 
Glorious  termination  of  a  brief  and  glorious  life  I  The  historic 
pcge  recounts  many  scenes  of  thrilling  eloquence,  in  life  and  in 
death.  But  out  of  the  Bible,  it  contains  no  record  of  a  voice 
more  eloquent,  even  to  the  last  agonies  of  death,  than  Stephen's. 
And  when  that  bold  and  eloquent  tongue  lay  silent  in  the  dust, 
it  was  only  to  receive  a  crown  of  martyrdom  which  shall  last 
forever.  As  he  fell  asleep  in  Jesus  and  the  last  prayerful 
accents  of  the  living  voice  died  away,  another  voice  of  eloquence 
that  never  dies,  began  to  plead,  and  by  it,  he  being  dead  yet 
speaketh.  His  example -took  up  the  unfinished  argument  of  his 
lips,  and  bore  it  down  to  every  successive  generation.  The 
classic  Greeks  showed  their  appreciation  of  eloquence  by  giving 
it  an  apotheosis  amongst  the  immortal  gods  :  but  here  in  the 
early  death  and  heroic  martyrdom  of  Stephen,  eloquence  found 
a  different  and  truer  apotheosis. 


V. PREACHING    OF    JOHN    THE    BAPTIST. 

But  leaving  this  true-hearted  speaker  in  all  the  glory  of  his 
early  martyrdom,  and  going  still  farther  back  in  the  sacred  his- 
tory, we  hear  the  voice  of  another  bold  advocate  of  truth  and 
reprover  of  wickedness  in  high  places — the  first  indeed  that  is 
heard  in  the  opening  pages  of  the  New  Testament.  It  is  the 
voice  of  one  who,  for  a  season,  was  held  in  universal  admiration, 
as  the  greatest  prophet,  preacher,  and  reformer  of  the  times. 
It  is  that  long-expected  voice,  which  breaks  forth  from  the 
wilderness  of  Judea,  crying,  "  Prepare  ye  the  way  of  the  Lord, 


166  THE  ELOQUENT  ORATORS 

make  his  paths  straight,"  and  is  heard  again  on  the  banks  ol 
the  Jordan,  pointing  out  the  Messiah  and  saying,  "  Behold  the 
Lamb  of  God,  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world."  It  is 
John  the  Baptist,  the  connecting  link  of  two  dispensa.tions— the 
last  and  greatest  prophet  of  the  old,  the  first  and  most  honored 
preacher  of  the  new,  in  whom  the  law  uttered  its  voice  of  thun- 
der mingled  with  the  swpet  music  of  a  gospel  of  repentance  and 
peace. 

We  have  no  detailed  report  of  the  preaching  of  John  ;  but 
we  have  many  short  extracts,  varying  in  length  from  one  verse 
to  ten,  which  seem  to  be  taken  from  his  speeches  on  different 
occasions,  and,  as  in  a  nutshell,  to  contain  the  substance  of  his 
preaching.  Judging  from  these,  as  well  as  from  the  testimony 
of  onr  Saviour  to  his  eminence,  and  from  the  deep  impression 
made  on  the  public  mind  of  the  nation,  we  must  conclude,  that 
there  was  something  unusually  powerful  and  effective  in  the  dis- 
courses of  this  preacher  of  the  desert.  It  is  recorded  as  the 
saying  of  the  people  on  one  occasion,  that,  "  John  did  no  mira- 
cle ;"  so  that  the  whole  effect  of  his  ministry  must  be  ascribed 
under  God  to  his  character  as  a  prophet  and  his  eloquence  as  a 
preacher  ;  and  this  effect,  we  know,  was  so  great,  that  all  the 
people  were  in  expectation  concerning  him,  "  musing  in  their 
hearts  if  he  were  not  the  Christ ;"  their  highest  authorities  were 
willing  for  a  reason  to  rejoice  in  him,  as  "  a  burning  and  shin- 
ing light,"  and  even  the  wicked  Herod  "  did  many  things  aod 
heard  him  gladly." 

Now,  in  speaking  of  John  and  other  preachers  of  the  New- 
Testament  as  eloquent  orators,  we  do  not  wish  to  convey  to 
your  minds  the  impression,  that  their  sole  power,  or  even  their 
chief  power,  lay  in  their  gifts  of  eloquence.  We  have  no  desire 
to  ascribe  any  undue  influence  and  importance  to  their  natural 


OF   THE   NEW    TESTAMENT.  167 

endowments,  to  the  disparagement  of  those  which  were  super 
natural.  We  wish  you  always  to  remember  that  all  these  inspir- 
ed preachers,  just  like  the  poets  of  the  Bible,  would  have  been 
nothing  and  could  have  done  nothing  successfully  in  their  great 
work,  though  they  had  spoken  with  the  tongues  of  men  and 
of  angels,  without  the  grace  of  God  and  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Still  it  is  just  as  true,  that  they  had  natural  endow- 
ments, as  that  they  had  these  high  spiritual  and  miraculous 
endowments.  And  God  wrought  in  them  by  the  one  as  well  as 
by  the  other.  For  the  most  part,  these  mighty,  superhuman  gifts 
and  endowments  found  utterance  and  expression  through  the 
medium  of  those  faculties  and  attainments  which  they  possessed 
cither  by  nature  or  education.  And  we  are  not'  to  think  that 
their  speech  was  any  the  less  real,  persuasive,  eloquent,  effec- 
tive human  speech,  fitted  to  melt  the  heart  and  move  the  will, 
because  they  often  spoke  with  other  tongues  as  the  Spirit  gave 
them  utterance.  So  far  from  disparaging  the  eloquence  of  the 
New  Testament  then,  because  its  orators  spoke  with  an  inspira- 
tion direct  from  heaven,  we  ought  rather  to  exalt  its  power  and 
influence  because  it  possessed  this  Divine  element.  This  Divine 
influence  left  John,  and  Stephen  and  Apollos,  as  free  to  exer- 
cise all  their  natural  gifts,  and  to  use  all  the  arts  of  persuading 
men,  as  if  they  had  been  under  no  such  afflatus.  Let  no  one 
object  then  to  the  application  of  the  term  eloquent  to  their 
preaching.  And  when  we  attribute  to  such  preaching,  the 
usual  effects  of  great  and  powerful  eloquence,  let  no  one  imagine 
we  are  making  void  the  grace  and  power  of  God.  We  are 
only  magnifying  the  power  of  that  grace  which  can  employ  the 
tongue  of  the  eloquent,  as  it  employs  other  things,  for  the 
accomplishment  of  its  grand  designs. 

Great  must  have  been  the  power  of  eloquence,  in  John's  case, 


168  THE  ELOQUENT  OKATOES 

destitute  as  he  was  of  the  power  of  w^orking  miracles,  to  draw 
together  the  vast  multitudes  of  all  ranks  and  classes  of  the  peo- 
ple that  crowded  to  his  baptism.  Clothed  as  he  was  in  the 
garb  of  one  of  the  old  prophets,  much  no  doubt  of  his  popular- 
ity and  power  would  be  due  to  the  estimation  in  which  the 
people  held  a  character  so  awful  and  sublime.  But  as  there 
had  been  no  great  prophet  in  Israel  for  four  hundred  years,  and 
as  John  was  yet  a  young  man  of  thirty,  how  could  his  title  to 
the  prophetic  office  be  established  so  soon  and  so  universally  ? 
The  only  answer  seems  to  be  in  the  extraordinary  character  of 
his  preaching.  By  his  bold,  energetic,  authoritative,  heart- 
searching  eloquence,  as  a  preacher  of  righteousness  and  a  teacher 
come  from  God,  and  by  this  alone,  could  he  establish  thus  easily 
his  mission  as  a  prophet  in  Israel.  Nothing  less  than  this  could 
have  attracted  from  their  homes  and  their  business  the  myriads 
of  people  that  waited  upon  his  ministry  on  the  banks  of  the 
Jordan.  For  we  are  told  that  all  Jerusalem  and  all  Judea,  and 
all  the  region  around,  went  out  to  him  there.  Short  as  it  is, 
enough  remains  to  us  of  the  preaching  in  which  he  warned  that 
generation  of  vipers  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come,  besides  the 
fact  that  he  at  last  fell  a  victim  for  his  fidelity  in  reproving 
vice,  to  convince  us  that  John  must  have  possessed,  in  a  remark- 
able degree,  the  attributes  of  a  great  popular  orator. 

Gilfillan  speaks  of  him  thus  :  "  He  attended  no  school  of  the 
prophets,  he  sat  at  the  feet  of  no  Gamaliel  ;  but  among  the 
rocks  and  the  caves,  and  the  solitudes  of  the  wilderness,  he 
extracted  the  sublime  and  stern  spirit  of  his  office.  The  tame- 
less torrent,  dashing  by,  taught  him  his  eloquence.  The  visions 
of  God  furnished  him  with  his  theology.  He  had  indeed  no 
rhythmic  utterance,  and  figurative  flights  :  but  he  had  the  dress, 
the  spirit,  the  power,  the  wild-eyed  fervor,  and  the  boldness  of 


OF    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT.  169 

his  prototypes  :  and  hence  the  wilderness  of  Jordan  rang  to 
his  voice,  Judea  was  struck  to  the  heart  at  his  appearance,  and 
Jerusalem  went  out  as  one  man  to  his  baptism." 

This  description  may  be  in  part  true  ;  but  there  is  much 
more  probable  truth  iu  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Kitto,  that  John 
being  of  the  tribe  of  Levi,  an  only  son,  and  withal  a  child  of 
so  much  promise  at  his  birth,  had  received  the  very  best  pro- 
fessional education  his  country  could  afford  ;  and  that  he 
retired  to  the  wilderness  for  meditation,  according  to  the  custom 
of  the  times,  only  a  few  years  prior  to  his  entering  on  the  great 
mission  of  his  life  ;  where  he  indeed  remained,  sustained  chiefly 
by  locusts  and  wild  honey,  till  the  day  of  his  showing  unto 
Israel. 

But  we  must  not  dwell  too  long  on  this  interesting  and 
remarkable  character — combining  at  once  all  the  highest  excel- 
lences of  prophet,  preacher  and  reformer,  in  the  life  of  a  young 
man.  With  his  name  we  are  accustomed  to  associate  the  great 
and  good  of  other  times.  We  think  of  this  light  of  a  dark 
age,  this  harbinger  of  the  Messiah's  advent,  in  connection  with 
those  morning  stars  of  the  great  reformation — Wickliflfe, 
Jerome,  and  Jolm  Huss.  There  was  something  also  of  the 
same  noble  daring,  and  singleness  of  purpose,  and  energetic 
eloquence  in  Luther  and  Calvin.  But  perhaps  the  nearest 
approximation  to  his  spirit,. and  character,  and  work,  which  the 
ministry  of  modern  times  has  ever  presented,  was  exemplified  in 
the  stern  heroic  preaching  of  Scotland's  great  reformer,  John 
Knox. 


170  THE   ELOQUENT    ORATORS 


VI. PETER   AS    AN    ORATOR. 

But  what  shall  we  say  of  the  preaching  of  the  Apostle 
Peter  ?  He  stands  forth  prominently  in  the  whole  evangelical 
history  as  one  of  the  greatest  public  speakers  of  the  New 
Testament.  During  the  life  of  Christ,  we  find  him  the  foremost 
speaker  on  all  occasions  ;  and  after  the  ascension,  he  seems  to 
have  stood  forward  the  acknowledged  leader  and  advocate  of 
the  apostolic  band,  whenever  their  cause  needed  to  be  publicly 
defended.  From  the  bold  promptitude  and  ready  facility  with 
which  he  expressed  his  opinions,  as  well  as  from  the  ardent 
enthusiasm  that  marked  his  character,  it  is  obvious  that  he  was 
by  nature  endowed  with  many  of  the  best  gifts  of  eloquence. 
The  two  sons  of  Zebedee,  were  called  by  our  Saviour,  "  Boan- 
erges," or  "  sons  of  thunder  ;"  which  would  lead  us  to  suppose 
that  they  too  must  have  possessed,  in  high  degree,  at  least  some 
of  the  characteristics  of  eloquence.  But  notwithstanding  this, 
we  find  Peter,  wherever  public  speaking  was  called  for,  taking 
precedence  of  James  and  John,  as  he  did  of  all  the  rest. 

In  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  we  find  reports,  more  or  less 
full,  of  some  nine  or  ten  of  the  discourses  delivered  by  Peter, 
at  different  times,  to  the  people  or  their  rulers,  or  to  his 
brethren  of  the  church.  For  example,  we  have  his  address  to 
the  company  of  a  hundred  and  twenty  disciples  immediately 
after  the  ascension  of  Jesus  ;  his  longer  discourse  on  the  day 
of  Pentecost  ;  his  speech  to  the  multitude  in  Solomon's  porch, 
in  connection  with  John,  at  the  healing  of  the  lame  man  ;  his 
defence  before  the  council  on  the  day  following,  and  another 
similar  defence  not  long  afterwards  ;  his  awful  rebuke  of 
Ananias  and  Sapphira  at  Jerusalem,  and  also  of  Simon  Magus 


OF    THK    NEW    TESTAMENT.  171 

the  sorcerer  at  Samaria  ;  his  sermon  before  Cornelius  and  his 
household  at  Caesarea,  the  first  sermon  to  the  Gentiles  ;  his 
subsequent  vindication  of  that  matter  before  the  .brethren  of 
the  church  ;  and  last  of  all,  his  speech  in  the  first  general 
Synod  of  Jerusalem  on  the  observance  of  the  ceremonial  law 
among  the  gentile  converts.  In  all  of  these,  as  also  in  his  two 
general  epistles,  we  find  many  striking  indications  of  that  natu- 
rally vigorous  intellect  and  high-toned  eloquence  which  so  often 
burst  forth  in  the  presence  of  the  Master.  There  was  not  a 
little  of  the  heroic  and  sublime  in  that  calm  and  dignified  pro- 
test to  the  council,  when  forbidden  to  preach  any  more  under 
pain  of  imprisonment  or  death  :  "Whether  it  be  right  in  the 
sight  of  God,  to  hearken  unto  you,  more  than  unto  God,  judge 
ye  ;  for  we  cannot  but  speak  the  things  which  we  have  seen 
and  heard." 

But  the  most  remarkable  and  effective  of  all  these,  was  his 
discourse  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  which,  along  with  the  labors 
of  his  colleagues,  resulted  in  the  conversion  of  three  thousand 
souls.  Of  course  it  is  not  to  be  understood  that  these  conver- 
sions were  the  work  of  Peter's  eloquence,  except  so  far  as  that 
eloquence  was  inspired  of  God,  and  blessed  of  God,  as  an  instru- 
ment in  the  hands  of  the  Divine  Spirit.  Xo  real  conversion  on 
that,  or  on  any  other  occasion,  is  the  work  of  mere  human 
oratory.  Peter  may  have  been,  and  probably  was,  an  eloquent 
man  all  his  life  ;  and  when  inspired  of  God,  as  he  was  on  the 
day  of  Pentecost,  even  that  natural  eloquence  must  have 
appeared  immeasurably  more  eloquent  than  it  ever  did  before 
But  no  eloquence  of  Peter's,  whether  natural  or  inspired,  could 
ever  convert  a  sinner  without  the  special  and  direct  agency  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  at  the  same  time  true, 
that  God,  who  works  by  the  most  appropriate  means  in  effect- 


172  THE  ELOQUENT  ORATORS 

ing  human  salvation,  just  as  he  does  in  other  things,  employs 
the  tongue  of  the  eloquent  in  siiYing  men.  And  although  there 
was  the  direct  miraculous  agency  of  the  Holy  Ghost  on  the 
day  of  Pentecost,  accompanied  by  visible  signs  and  mighty 
wonders — cloven  tongues  of  fire  and  new  languages  which  they 
had  never  learned — still  it  was  by  the  preaching  of  Peter  and 
the  eleven  associates — their  bold,  faithful,  pointed,  heart-search^ 
ing  proclamation  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus — that  three 
thousand  souls  were  added  to  the  church  on  that  memorable 
day. 

And  when  in  the  annals  of  Christianity  did  any  sermon,  or 
as  we  should  rather  say,  set  of  sermons,  on  a  single  day,  produce 
so  large  a  result  ?  If  eloquence  may  be  measured  by  its  fruits, 
this  day's  preaching  of  the  inspired  Apostles  must  stand  without 
a  parallel  in  the  annals  of  preaching.  It  was  indeed  a  day  of 
Pentecost  to  Christianity — a  glorious  ingathering  of  her  first 
fruits.  And  God  seems  thus  early  to  have  established  a  pre- 
cedent and  a  model  for  the  preachers  and  the  churches  of  all 
coming  generations. 

Now  you  may  be  familiar  with  the  achievements  of  pulpit 
eloquence  in  modern  times  ;  you  may  have  read  with  what 
breathless  interest,  all  classes  of  people,  the  great  and  the 
learned,  as  well  as  the  poor  and  unlettered,  hung  upon  the  lips 
of  Whitfield,  of  Chalmers,  of  Edward  Irving,  of  Robert  Hall; 
how  vast  audiences  were  electrified,  and  half  entranced  by  the 
beseeching  music  of  the  voice,  when  uttered  by  young  men  like 
Summerfield  or  Larned  ;  how  congregated  thousands  were 
alternately  bathed  in  tears  and  striken  down  in  terror  in  the 
powerful  revivals  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  or  of  the  old  divines 
of  Scotland  ;  how  a  grand  assemblage  of  corrupt  and  courtly 
auditors  were  made  to  start  to  their  feet  instinctively,  as  over 


OF    THE    NlOW    TESTAMENT.  173 

tlie  mortal  remains  of  Louis  XIV.  Massillon  pronounced  the 
words — "  God  only  is  great  ;"  but  after  all  these  and  a  thousand 
kindred  triumphs  of  the  pulpit,  the  conversion  of  three  thou- 
sands souls  in  one  day  from  the  ranks  of  men  whose  hands  were 
stained  so  recently  with  the  blood  of  Jesus,  must  still  remain 
as  the  greatest  achievement  ever  made  by  the  eloquence  of 
the  pulpit.  You  may,  if  you  please,  dispute  the  claims  of  the 
Bible  orators  to  superiority  in  other  departments  ;  but  there 
can  be  no  dispute  here.  There  has  been  no  preaching  on  earth, 
so  eloquent,  so  powerful,  so  triumphant,  so  sublime  as  that 
which  the  Bible  records. 


VII. SPEECH    OF   JAMES    BEFORE    THE    SYNOD    OF   JERUSALEM. 

We  may  notice  next,  as  a  fine  example  of  dignified,  delibera- 
tive eloquence,  the  speech  of  the  apostle  James,  before  the  first 
general  council  of  Jerusalem,  the  substance  of  which  is  reported 
in  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  the  Acts.  This  is  not  James,  the 
brother  of  John,  for  he  had  already  been  put  to  death  by  the 
sword  of  Herod  ;  but  that  James  who  wrote  the  general  epis- 
tle, whom  Paul  calls  the  *'  brother  of  our  Lord,"  and  who  was 
distinguished  amongst  his  contemporaries  by  the  title  of  "James 
the  Just."  It  is  remarkable  that  nothing  remains  in  the  New 
Testament  of  any  of  the  sermons  of  the  brothers,  James  and 
John,  though  as  "  sons  of  thunder,"  they  must  have  acted  a 
conspicuous  part  in  preaching  the  Gospel.  It  is  well  observed 
by  a  recent  writer,  in  regard  to  these  brothers,  as  showing 
how  different  may  be  the  career  of  usefuhiess  to  which  Christ 
calls  his  ministers,  that  "  one  died  before  the  middle  of  the 
first   Christian  century,  the   other    lived   to    its    close  ;    oue 


174  THK  eloqdp:nt  orators 

of  them  was  called  to  lay  down  his  life,  the  first  martyr  of  the 
twelve,  almost  before  the  gospel  had  been  preached  out  of  Jeru- 
salem :  whilst  the  other  outlived  all  the  band,  saw  the  gospel 
established  in  every  land,  and  at  last  died  in  peace."  Liitle 
did  their  ambitious  mother  dream  of  the  strange  but  glorious 
destiny  that  awaited  the  one  and  the  other,  when  she  asked 
that  her  two  sons  might  sit  on  the  right  hand  and  the  left  of 
the  throne  of  Jesus  ! 

But  to  return  to  the  other  James  ;  he  seems,  as  an  apostle, 
to  have  exercised  his  ministry  at  Jerusalem;  for  many  years,  to 
have  been  a  man  of  great  weight  in  counsel,  and  probably  tc- 
havebeen  the  president  or  moderator  of  the  synod  just  referred  tc 
On  the  solemn  and  important  questions  which  had  to  be  decid 
ed  at  that  meeting,  we  are  told  there  had  been  much  contro 
versy.  In  the  synod  itself  there  was  no  little  disputation  ;  for 
the  main  question  at  issue,  touching  the  binding  authority  of 
the  law  of  Moses  upon  the  gentile  churches,  was  one  of  no  little 
perplexity  to  men  educated  as  they  had  been.  Several  had 
advanced  their  opinions.  Peter  had  delivered  a  short  speech 
full  of  practical  wisdom  and  sound  but  liberal  doctrines.  Paul 
and  Barnabas,  who  had  brought  the  question  up  from  Antioch, 
bad  each  in  turn  addressed  the  assembly,  declaring  all  the  won- 
derful things  God  was  working  among  the  Gentiles.  James 
waited  till  all  were  done,  and  then  spoke.  His  antecedents 
were  of  such  a  character  as  might  have  inclined  him  to  take 
the  side  of  a  rigid  adherence  to  the  Mosaic  institutions.  But  his 
mind  seems  at  once  to  have  grasped  the  true  doctrine  as  already 
expounded  by  Peter,  who  had  received  a  revelation  on  the  sub- 
ject. He  gives  his  opinion  in  accordance  with  that  view,  ad- 
ducing arguments  from  Scripture  to  support  it.  The  speech,  as 
reported,  is  short,  but  full  of  weighty  matter.    It  seems  to  have 


OF    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT.  175 

reconciled  all  conflicting  views  of  both  parties,  and  its  senti- 
ments, with  almost  its  very  words,  were  immediately  adopted  and 
sent  forth  to  the  churches  in  the  form  of  a  decree  of  the  council. 
This  whole  case  is  one  of  great  interest  to  us,  because  it 
shows  how  even  the  inspired  Apostles,  who  had  received  direct 
revelations  from  the  Lord,  had  still  to  use  their  natural  facul- 
ties and  bring  together  their  united  wisdom,  in  arriving  at  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth  on  many  important  points.  We  see 
them  meeting  with  the  elders  of  the  church,  consulting,  delib- 
erating, debating,  and  at  last  coming  to  a  unanimous  decision, 
which  was  the  result  of  conference — mind  meeting  mind  in  ar- 
gument, opinion  modifying  opinion  in  counsel,  and  truth  ex- 
plaining and  enlarging  truth,  when  thus  laid  together.  Instead 
of  giving  a  special  revelation  on  the  subject,  or  rather,  after 
he  had  giveu  such  a  revelation  to  one  of  them,  the  Lord  saw 
fit  to  leave  them  to  discover  the  whole  truth  by  the  ordinary 
means  of  mutual  conference  and  consultation. 


VIII. — THE     RECORDER     OR    TOWN-CLERK     OF     EPHESUS. 

Let  us  turn  now  to  an  example  of  public  speaking  altogether 
different  from  any  we  have  yet  contemplated  ;  for  it  is  re- 
markable how  diversified  are  the  styles  of  oratory  exemplified 
in  the  New  Testament.  This  is  an  address,  delivered  to  a  col- 
lection of  the  people  which  had  all  the  characteristics  of  an  in- 
furiated, ungovernable  mob.  It  must  be  acknowledged  that  it 
requires  talents  of  a  peculiar  order  to  address  such  an  assem- 
bly. Perhaps  the  most  difficult  task  which  an  orator  ever  es- 
says, is  to  oppose — successfully  to  oppose — the  demands  of  an 
unreasoning,  raging  mob.     It  is  worthy  of  remark,  how  many 


176  THE  ELOQUENT  ORATORS 

notices  of  the  doings  of  such  mobs  we  find  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. It  was  a  mob,  that  under  color  of  the  forms  of  law, 
crucified  the  son  of  God.  It  was  a  mob  that  more  than  once, 
in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem,  took  up  stones  to  stone  him.  It 
was  such  a  mob  that,  at  Nazareth,  led  him  to  the  brow  of  the 
hill  whereon  their  city  was  built,  intending  to  cast  him  down 
the  precipice.  It  was  a  grave  and  dignified  assembly,  madly 
converting  itself  into  a  mob,  that  put  Stephen  to  death.  It 
\ 'as  through  mob  violence  that  Paul  was,  in  many  places,  ex- 
pelled from  the  synagogue,  scourged  and  cast  into  prison  ;  and 
at  one  time  stoned  and  left  for  dead.  It  was  one  of  the 
most  fierce  and  diabolical  of  mobs,  that  once  rushed  upon  him 
in  the  temple  of  Jerusalem,  casting  off  their  clothes,  throwing 
dust  into  the  air,  crying  "  away  with  such  a  fellow  from  the 
earth,"  and  purposing  to  tear  him  in  pieces. 

But  of  all  the  mobs  mentioned  in  the  New  Testament,  this 
one  at  Epliesus  is  to  us,  the  most  curious  and  instructive,  as 
well  from  its  being  so  graphically  described  and  so  near  akin  to 
the  mobs  of  our  own  times,  as  from  the  remarkably  adroit 
and  sensible  speech  of  the  town-clerk  who  at  last  quelled  it. 

You  will  get  a  wrong  impression  of  the  character  of  this 
officer,  if  you  think  of  him  only  as  a  clerk  or  secretary  of  some 
petty  court  in  Ephesus.  In  addition  to  his  office  of  recorder, 
or  keeper  of  the  archives  of  the  city,  he  was,  for  the  time  being, 
a  magistrate,  and  indeed  the  chief  magistrate  of  Ephesus.  His 
office,  which  was  held  for  one  year,  corresponded  very  nearly 
with  the  office  of  mayor  in  one  of  our  cities  :  so  that  the  town- 
clerk  was  the  highest  presiding  officer  of  that  great  city  at  the 
date  of  this  occurrence.  And  with  the  knowledge  of  this  fact, 
you  will  be  better  prepared  to  understand  the  reasons  of  that 
success  with  which  he  allayed  so  great  a  storm  by  so  short  a 


OF    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT.  177 

speech.  lu  virtue  of  bis  ofiSce,  it  was  his  right  and  duty  to 
preside  in  the  lawful  assemblies  of  the  people,  and  hence  we 
find  hira  acting  so  conspicuous  a  part  at  this  unlawful  and  im- 
mense gathering  in  the  Ephesian  theatre.  Dr.  Kitto.  from 
whom  these  particulars  have  been  chiefly  derived,  tells  us,  that 
"The  theatre  at  Ephesus  was  the  largest  structure  of  the  kind 
ever  erected  by  the  Greeks,  and  was  capable  of  seating  fifty 
thousand  persons.  It  was  excavated  from  the  sloping  side  of 
mount  Prion,  looking  towards  the  west,  and  was  faced  with  a 
portico.  The  exterior  diameter  was  660  feet.  Like  all  other 
ancient  theatres,  it  had  no  roof,  but  the  spectators  protected 
themselves  from  the  sun  by  head-gear  adapted  for  a  screen,  or 
by  holding  a  light  parasol  in  their  hand,  or  sometimes  a  kind 
of  tarpaulin  was  drawn  across  the  theatre  itself.  Here  the 
scenic  representations  were  exhibited,  and  here  were  held  the  as« 
semblies  of  the  people.  This  theatre  is  still  discoverable  by  its 
ruins,  which  are  of  immense  grandeur.  Its  interest  to  us  arises 
from  the  certainty,  with  which  it  can  be  identified  as  the  scene 
of  one  of  Paul's  most  perilous  conflicts."  And  here  he  adds — 
"  We  witness  a  curious,  but  not  unparalleled  union,  of  the 
'  great  goddess  Diana,'  with  the  great  god  Self,  whose  worship 
still  exists,  though  that  of  Diana  is  extinct." 

The  vast  multitude  of  craftsmen  and  others  was  headed  by 
Demetrius,  one  of  the  chief  manufacturers  of  "  silver  shrines  of 
Diana."  Having  first  filled  the  whole  city  with  confusion,  and 
sought  in  vain  to  find  Paul,  they  caught  two  of  his  companions, 
and  rushed  with  one  accord  into  the  theatre,  rending  the  air 
with  the  shout — "  Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians."  This 
wily  and  selfish  man,  who  had  raised  all  the  uproar,  was  actu- 
ated by  the  basest  motives  of  gain.  But  with  the  true  instinct 
of  a  demagogue,  he  had  contrived  to  cloak  this  love  of  filthy 

8* 


178  THE  ELOQUENT  ORATORS 

lucre,  under  the  specious  pretence  of  devotion  to  the  glory  of 
their  presiding  deity.  His  speech  to  his  fellow-craftsmen,  so 
loud  in  professions  of  concern  for  the  temple  of  the  great  god- 
dess, whose  "magnificence  not  only  Asia,  but  all  the  world 
worshipped,"  is  about  the  most  finished  specimen  of  the  peculiar 
art  of  demagogism,  to  be  found  in  ancient  times. 

When  the  vast  stream  had  poured  itself  into  the  theatre — 
some  crying  one  thing  and  some  another,  and  many  not  know- 
ing why  they  were  there  at  all,  but  all  ready  for  deeds  of  blood 
- — Paul  who  had  thus  far  kept  out  of  the  way,  was  informed  of 
their  proceedings  ;  and  learning,  that  his  two  companions  were 
in  the  hands  of  the  mob,  he  determined  to  go  himself  and  share 
their  danger.  Nothing  in  all  the  heroic  history  of  that  great 
apostle,  more  strikingly  displays  the  noble  generosity  and  high- 
souled  courage  of  the  man,  than  that  he  should  dare  to  appear 
before  such  a  mob.  His  brethren,  knowing  the  peril,  would 
not  suffer  it ;  and  in  this  purpose  they  were  sustained  by  cer- 
tain of  the  chief  men  of  Asia,  or  religious  officers  of  the  city, 
who  were  friends  of  Paul. 

In  the  meantime  a  Jew,  named  Alexander,  probably  with  a 
view  to  shield  his  own  countrymen  from  the  fury  now  directed 
against  the  Christians,  tried  to  get  a  hearing.  He  came  for- 
ward, beckoning  with  the  hand,  and  "  would  have  made  a  de- 
fence to  the  people."  But  they  had  met  for  deeds,  not  words — 
they  had  come  for  execution  and  not  speecdi-making.  They 
only  drowned  his  voice  in  a  louder  and  longer  cry  of  "  Great  is 
Diana  of  the  Ephesians."  This  we  are  told  they  kept  up,  "  all 
with  one  voice  about  the  space  of  two  hours." 

At  this  stage  of  affairs  the  recorder  seems  to  have  arrived  ; 
or  it  may  be,  he  was  there  before,  waiting  the  favorable  mo- 
ment to  interpose  with  his  authority.     And  when  at  length  he 


OF    THE    NEW    TE5TAMKNT.  179 

had  SO  far  appeased  the  multitude  as  to  gain  a  hearing,  he  de 
livered  that  brief,  and  for  such  an  occasion,  admirable  speech, 
which  is  recorded  by  Luke  in  six  verses,  every  word  of  which 
was  directly  to  the  point,  and  full  of  strong-  common  sense.  We 
need  not  cite  it  here,  as  you  can  examine  it  at  your  leisure. 
Bat  if  we  judge  it  from  the  stand-point  of  heathenism  at  which 
it  was  delivered,  and  try  to  fancy  ourselves  in  the  recorder's 
place,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  how  he  could  have  acquitted  him- 
self with  more  dignity,  more  wisdom  and  more  success.  He  said 
precisely  the  right  words  at  precisely  the  right  time.  "  And 
when  he  had  so  spoken  he  dismissed  the  assembly."  The  one 
wise  man  had  turned  away  the  wrath  of  a  multitude,  and  de- 
livered the  city.  There  was  an  influence  going  out  from  the 
man  of  high  official  station  over  all  the  masses  of  that  fierce 
mob  ;  but  there  was  a  much  mightier  influence  going  out  from 
the  words  of  wisdom  which  he  uttered.  It  is  not  every  city  of 
a  Christian  land  that  is  blest  with  so  wise,  so  influential,  so  elo- 
quent a  mayor  as  the  town-clerk  of  Ephesus.  Heathen  though 
he  was,  he  has  the  distinction  of  having  his  speech  recorded  on 
the  sacred  page. 

IX THE    ELOQUENCE    OF    PAUL. 

But  Paul — what  shall  we  say,  how  shall  we  speak  of  Paul? 
Where  shall  we  find  words  to  rise  to  the  matchless  majesty  of 
such  an  orator  as  Paul  ?  Every  association  that  clusters  around 
his  name  inspires  the  mind  with  ideas  of  eloquence.  Whatever 
he  writes,  whenever  he  speaks,  wherever  he  goes,  his  words 
and  actions  all  burn  with  eloquence.  He  rises  with  ease  and 
grandeur  to  the  sublimest  truths  of  revelation  :  and  he  bends 
with  grace  and  dignity  to  the  minutest  details  of  daily  life 


180  THE  ELOQUENT  OEATOKS 

and  duty.  Whatever  subject  he  touches,  however  lowly,  or  ob« 
scure,  or  commonplace,  becomes  at  once  radiant  with  the 
light  of  truth,  and  sublime  through  the  inspirations  of  eloquence , 
There  is,  in  the  whole  character  and  career  of  this  great  apostle, 
such  a  wideuess  of  view.,  such  a  completeness  of  design^  such  a  sus" 
tained  and  lofty  bearing,  such  an  assemblage  of  rare  and  noble 
attainments,  that  we  scarcely  know  what  to  admire  the  most— 
v/hether  Paul  the  man  or  Paul  the  minister — Paul  as  theologian 
or  as  moral  hero— as  logician  or  as  orator — as  the  champion  of 
truth,  or  as  the  martyr  of  Christianity.  It  is  no  exaggeration, 
speaking  of  mere  men,  to  call  him  the  prince  of  preachers  and  the 
prince  of  moral  heroes.  And  though  he  calls  himself  the  least 
of  the  Apostles,  it  is  manifest  that  in  many  respects  he  stands 
at  the  head  of  the  list.  Of  msro  men,  there  is  no  character 
in  the  Bible,  except  Moses,  that  deserves  to  be  put  in  compar- 
ison with  him — none  that  accomplished  so  much  while  living — 
none  that  after  deatli  has  exerted  so  great  an  influence.  Regard- 
ei  simply  as  a  man  of  genius,  apart  from  all  his  supernatural 
r;ifts,  w^e  suppose  there  was  not  a  human  mind  to  be  found  in  all 
the  length  and  breadth  of  the  Roman  world  of  his  generation, 
more  richly  endowed  with  the  attributes  of  greatness  than  Paul's. 
It  would  seem  that  Divine  grace  had  so  called  him  to  his 
work,  and  so  equipped  and  adorned  him  for  it,  as  to  give  the 
world,  m  one  living  man,  a  specimen  of  tlie  whole  power  of 
Christianity  upon  the  character — to  illustrate  by  example  what 
human  nature  might  become  and  might  achieve  when  controlled 
and  sanctified  by  grace.  Excepting  only  the  character  of  Jesus 
and  the  preaching  of  Jesus,  there  is  no  character  nor  voice  of 
eloquence,  even  in  the  New  Testament^  which  can  stir  all  the 
depths  of  the  soul  to  sympathy  and  admiration,  like  Paul's. 
Eighteen  centuries  have  responded  with  reiterated  and  increas. 


OF   THE   NEW   TESTAMENT.  181 

Ing  applause  to  that  eloquence  ;  eternity  alone  can  disclose  the 
influence  of  such  a  character  and  such  a  life. 

We  need  not  speak  now  of  that  peculiar  style  of  familiar 
yet  elevated  conversation — that  earnest,  importunate,  enthusias- 
tic, authoritative  talking,  as  it  were  face  to  face  with  the 
churches,  which  runs  through  all  his  Epistles,  and  distinguishes 
them  as  the  most  eloquent  and  effective  letters  that  were 
ever  penned.  We  need  not  speak  of  the  unreported  eloquence 
of  those  almost  countless  occasions,  when  in  the  synagogues  of 
the  Jews,  before  the  temple  shrines  of  the  Greeks,  in  the 
streets,  houses,  and  market  places  of  the  whole  Roman  Empire, 
from  Jerusalem  to  Antioch,  from  Antioch  to  Athens,  from 
Athens  to  Rome,  he  lifted  up  his  voice  with  mighty  reasonings 
to  convince  and  persuade  men.  And  we  need  not  speak  of 
that  deeper  eloquence  of  living  and  heroic  deeds,  which,  in 
defiance  of  all  opposition,  uttered  itself  unceasingly  in  planting 
churches,  and  carrying  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation  to  regions 
"  where  Christ  had  not  been  named."  Let  us  pass  over  every- 
thing of  this  kind,  to  notice  some  of  those  public  discourses  of 
the  great  apostle  which,  to  some  extent,  have  been  recorded  in 
the  book  of  Acts. 

Besides  brief  addresses  on  different  occasions,  we  find  reports 
of  six  of  his  speeches,  which  are  given  at  considerable  length. 
And  these  were  delivered  under  circumstances  calculated  to  call 
forth  his  highest  powers  of  eloquence.  For  instance,  we  have  a 
long  address,  setting  forth  the  way  of  life  by  the  gospel, 
delivered  to  the  men  of  Israel  in  the  synagogue  at  Antioch  : 
we  have  his  short  and  masterly  address  to  the  men  of  Athens 
on  Mars  Hill :  his  pathetic  farewell  address  to  the  elders  of  the 
Ephesian  Church  ;  his  bold  and  powerful  speech  to  the  mob  of 
Jerusalem  from  the  steps  of  the  tower  ;  his  dignified  and  tri- 


182  THE  ELOQUENT  ORATORS 

umphant  vindication  at  C^sarea  against  the  charge  of  Ter- 
tullus  ;  and  his  sublime  defence  of  himself  and  apology  for 
Christianity  before  King  Agrippa  and  the  court  of  Festus.  The 
world  has  justly  ranked  these  six  speeches  amongst  the  noblest 
triumphs  of  pulpit  eloquence.  For  although  we  have  but  a 
fragment  on  which  to  rest  our  judgment  ;  still  it  is  easy,  even 
from  that,  to  see  what  the  whole  must  have  been.  It  is  not 
easy,  however,  to  decide  which  of  the  six  is  the  master-piece, 
so  perfectly  adapted  is  each  to  the  end  which  the  speaker  had 
in  view. 

The  last  of  them — the  defence  before  King  Agrippa  and  his 
royal  sister  Bernice,  has  generally  been  regarded  as  the  most 
eloquent,  which  may  be  owing  partly  to  its  being  reported  at 
greater  length  than  the  others,  and  partly  to  the  attending  cir- 
cumstances. It  was  manifestly  a  speech  of  great  power,  aside 
from  any  consideration  of  the  occasion  that  called  it  forth,  or 
the  impressions  produced  by  it.  But  when  we  take  all  these 
into  consideration,  and  think  of  the  circumstances  in  which 
both  the  speaker  and  his  auditors  stood,  it  must  be  pronounced 
an  effort  of  the  very  highest  moral  sublimity.  Reflect  a 
moment  on  the  scene. 

Paul  was  a  prisoner  in  bonds,  still  awaiting  his  trial,  as  he 
had  been  during  two  long  years  of  delay,  and  now  at  last  appeal- 
ing for  a  hearing  to  the  bar  of  Augustus  at  Rome.  Just  at 
this  time,  Agrippa,  attended  by  Bernice,  who,  though  a  sister, 
was  suspected  of  bearing  to  him  a  relation  which  no  sister 
could  lawfully  hold,  came  down  to  Caesarea  to  pay  their  court 
to  Porcius  Festus,  the  newly  aj^pointed  governor  of  the  pro- 
vince. Having  heard  the  particulars  of  Paul's  case,  and  pro- 
bably a  good  report  as  to  his  eloquence,  the  Jewish  King,  who, 
notwithstanding  his  Herodean  blood,  and  liis  sinful  life,  seems  to 


OF   THE   NEW   TESTAMENT.  183 

have  had  some  natural  conscicuce  left,  expressed  a  desire  to  hoar 
Paul  speak.  Accordingly  we  are  told  that,  "  on  the  morrow, 
when  Agrippa  was  come  and  Bernice,  with  great  pomp,  and 
was  entered  into  the  place  of  hearing,  with  the  chief  captains 
and  the  principal  men  of  the  city,"  evidently  making  a  large 
and  imposing  assembly,  "  at  Festus's  commandment  Paul  was 
brought  forth."  "And  Festus" — apparently  feeling  now  that 
he  had  a  prisoner  worth  showing,  and  whose  showing  contri- 
buted something  to  his  own  self-importance — "  said.  King 
Agrippa,  and  all  men  who  are  here  present  v/ith  us,  ye  see  this 
man,  about  whom  all  the  multitude  of  the  Jews  have  dealt  with 
me,  both  at  Jerusalem  and  also  here,  crying  that  he  ought  not 
to  live  any  longer.  But  when  I  found  that  he  had  committed 
nothing  worthy  of  death,  and  that  he  himself  hath  appealed 
unto  Augustus,  I  have  determined  to  send  him.  Of  whom  I 
have  no  certain  thing  to  write  unto  my  lord.  Wherefore  I  have 
brought  him  forth  before  you,  and  especially  before  thee,  0 
King  Agrippa,  that  after  examination  had,  I  might  have  some- 
what to  write.  For  it  seemeth  to  me  unreasonable  to  send  a 
prisoner,  and  not  withal  to  signify  the  crimes  laid  against  him." 
"  Then  Agrippa  said  unto  Paul,  *  thou  art  permitted  to  speak 
for  thyself.'  And  Paul  stretched  forth  the  hand,  and  answered 
for  himself:" — "I  think  myself  happy.  King  Agrippa,  because 
I  shall  answer  for  myself  this  day  before  thee,  touching  all  the 
things  whereof  I  am  accused  of  the  Jews.  Especially,  because 
I  know  thee  to  be  expert  in  all  customs  and  questions  which  are 
among  the  Jews.  Wherefore  I  beseech  thee  to  hear  me  patiently. 
My  manner  of  life  from  my  youth,  which  was  at  the  first 
among  mine  own  nation  at  Jerusalem,  know  all  the  Jews  :  who 
knew  me  from  the  beginning,  if  they  would  testify,  that  after 
the  straitest  sect  of  our  religion,  I  lived  a  Pharisee.     And  now 


184  THE  ELOQUENT  OEATOES 

I  stand  and  am  judged  for  the  hope  of  the  promise,  made  of 
God  unto  our  fathers.  Unto  which  promise  our  twelve  tribes 
instantly  serving  God,  day  and  night,  hope  to  come  :  for 
which  hope's  sake.  King  Agrippa,  I  am  accused  of  the 
Jews." 

Such  is  his  opening  of  the  case  ;  such  his  exordium  and 
clearing  of  the  question.  But  you  are  doubtless  familiar  with 
the  speech,  and  we  need  not  recite  it  further  now.  You 
remember  with  what  impressive  grace  and  courtesy  and 
ease,  he  addressed  himself  to  the  august  auditory.  You 
remember  with  what  self-possessed  dignity,  with  what  fearless 
fidelity,  with  what  conscious  superiority  over  his  lordly  judges, 
despite  their  interruptions,  he  waxed  warmer  and  warmer  under 
the  kindlings  of  his  lofty  theme,  until  they  not  only  held  him 
guiltless  of  any  crime,  but  almost  envied  his  position  as  a  Chris- 
tian. You  remember  with  what  earnestness,  and  with  what 
irresistible  logic,  he  made  the  appeal  direct,  and  pressed  home 
the  "  argumentum  ad  homiuem,"  to  the  very  conscience  of  the 
liing — "  For  the  king  kuoweth  of  these  things,  before  whom 
also  I  speak  freely.  King  Agrippa,  believest  thou  the  prophets  ? 
I  know  that  thou  believest.  Why  should  it  be  thought  a  thing 
incredible  with  you  that  God  should  raise  the  dead."  And 
when  at  last,  these  appeals  had  drawn  from  the  king,  the  unex- 
pected declaration — "  Almost  thou  persuadest  me  to  be  a  Chris- 
tian," the  apostle,  seizing  so  good  an  opportunity  to  deepen  the 
impressions  he  had  made,  instantly  replied — "  I  would  to  God 
that  not  only  thou,  but  also  all  that  hear  me  this  day,  were  not 
only  almost,  but  altogether,  such  as  I  am,  except  these  bonds." 
"  This,"  says  Dr.  Kitto,  "  was  a  master-stroke  of  true  elo« 
queuce,  that  the  finest  orators  of  Greece  or  Rome  never 
equalled.     The  effect  was  electrical,     Agrippa  started  from  his 


OF   THE   NEW    TESTAMENT.  185 

Beat,  and  broke  up  the  court,  by  departing  with  the  governor 
and  Beruice,  as  if  afraid  that  he  should  commit  himself  further 
were  he  to  listen  any  longer." 


X. — Paul's  address  on  mars  hill. 

But  if  we  should  single  out  any  one  of  the  six  recorded  speeches 
of  the  apostle,  as  being  the  sublimest  triumph  of  his  eloquence, 
we  should  take  his  address  at  Athens,  before  the  Court  of 
Areopagus  on  Mars  Hill,  although  the  report  given  of  it  is 
evidently  but  a  brief  compend  of  what  he  saidou  that  occasion. 
Briefs  and  skeletons  of  sermons  are  proverbially  dry.  Bat  it  is 
not  so  with  those  of  the  Scriptures.  There  is  a  vital  spirit  still 
breatliiug  in  every  word  and  sentence  of  these  inspired  frag- 
ments. The  one  now  before  us  possesses  a  peculiar  interest, 
from  the  fact  that  it  was  the  first  meeting,  at  least  on  any- 
thing like  a  grand  scale,  of  the  eloquence  of  Jerusalem  with 
that  of  xVthens.  It  was  the  first  formal  and  direct  assault, 
which  this  new  and  foreign  religion,  called  Christianity,  had  as 
yet  made  upon  the  fables  of  the  ancient  classical  mythology  in 
the  home  of  their  nativity  and  the  citadel  of  their  strength. 
Many  triumphs  it  had  won  in  Ephesus  and  other  cities  of  Asia 
Minor.  Something  too  had  been  achieved  in  the  chief  cities  of 
Macedonia.  But  this  was  now  the  first  promulgation  of  the 
truth  to  the  Greeks  themselves  on  their  own  classic  soil.  It 
was  the  first  direct  collision  between  the  educated,  imaginative 
mind  of  the  Asiatic  world,  and  the  educated  mind  of  the  highly 
polished,  artistic  people  of  the  European  world.  It  was  Shem 
and  Japheth  coming  together  after  long  centuries  of  separation, 
each  bringing  the  religious  system  he  had  been  perfecting  for 


186  THE  ELOQUENT  ORATORS 

ages,  at  last  to  try  their  strength,  on  the  arena  of  reason  And 
argument,  in  an  open  contest  for  the  mastery  of  the  world. 
Versed  as  Paul  was,  from  his  singular  advantages  of  genealogy, 
nativity  and  education,  both  in  the  learning  of  the  East  and 
the  West,  and  able,  even  before  his  endowment  with  the  gift  of 
tongues,  to  speak  to  the  Hebrews  in  Hebrew,  and  to  the  Greeks 
in  Greek,  he  was  eminently  fitted  to  represent  the  cause  of 
Christianity  at  this  Athenian  meeting  of  the  two  worlds,  the 
two  races,  and  the  two  religions.  We  can  well  imagine 
with  what  enthusiasm,  and  with  what  yearning  desire  to  save 
souls,  such  a  man  as  Paul  must  have  trod,  for  the  first  time, 
the  classic  soil  of  Attica — the* far-famed  land  of  poetry  and  the 
arts,  of  heroes  and  sages,  of  temple-crowned  hills  and  story- 
telling glens,  of  gushing  fountains,  bright  skies,  and  balmy  air  : 
and  how  he  would  feel  when  at  last  he  stood  within  the  gates 
of  that  proud  city,  which  was  the  boast  of  Greece,  the  shrine 
of  genius,  the  home  of  art,  the  cradle  of  philosophy,  but  at  the 
same  time  the  seat  of  every  false  god.  And  so,  we  are  told, 
that  while  tarrying  at  Athens  for  his  companions,  "  his  spirit 
was  stirred  within  him  "  when  he  saw  such  a  city  wholly  given 
to  idolatry. 

Disputing  first  with  his  own  countrymen  there  in  the  syna- 
gogue, as  was  his  custom  wherever  he  went,  and  then  witii  all 
others  whom  he  met,  from  day  to  day,  in  the  market-place,  he 
was,  after  a  while,  encountered  by  a  company  of  the  Epicurean 
and  Stoic  philosophers,  who  brought  him  to  the  great  council 
hall  of  the  city  on  the  top  of  Mars  Hill,  in  order  to  hear  more 
fully  what  this  babbler  and  setter  forth  of  strange  gods  had  to 
say.  In  that  place  the  Athenians — professional  teachers,  poets, 
rhetoricians,  critics,  philosophers,  logicians — were  accustomed 
to  meet  daily  for  the  purpose  of  "  teUing  or  hearing  some  new 


OF   THE   NEW   TESTAMENT.  187 

thing."  In  Ihat  place  also  the  highest  court  of  the  city  was 
accustomed  to  hold  its  sessions.  In  that  very  hall  the  great 
Socrates,  four  centuries  before,  had  been  arraigned,  tried  and 
condemned  to  death,  on  this  same  charge  of  inculcating  the 
worship  of  strange  gods. 

It  is  obvious  from  the  narrative  and  from  the  apostle's  speech 
that  he  had  been  brought  into  the  presence  of  this  court,  not 
merely  out  of  idle  curiosity  to  hear  him  speak,  but  for  the  pur- 
pose of  an  investigation,  and  if  need  be  a  trial,  touching  the 
doctrines  he  had  been  inculcating  during  his  stay  at  Athens. 
And  if  so,  it  is  equally  obvious,  that  he  was  in  no  little  peril  of 
his  life,  in  case  he  should  appear  to  have  been  setting  forth  the 
worship  of  some  new,  unauthorized  God.  For,  as  Dr.  Kitto 
again  tells  us,  you  must  bear  in  mind,  that  whilst  the  Athenians 
were  willing  and  even  anxious  to  establish  the  worship  of  every 
distinguished  deity  in  the  world,  it  v/as  a  matter  which  belonged 
solely  to  the  state.  It  was  death  for  an  individual  unauthorized 
to  establish  or  teach  any  new  worship.  How  then  did  Paul, 
who  had  been  boldly  preaching  Jesus  and  the  Resurrection, 
manage  to  exonerate  himself  from  this  dangerous  charge  ?  In 
the  most  admirable  manner  in  the  world.  By  a  single  sentence 
in  the  very  opening  of  his  speech,  which  must  have  relieved 
every  mind  in  his  audience,  and  eUcited  new  interest  in  his 
cause,  he  extricated  himself  from  all  suspicions  on  that  point. 
Taking  advantage  of  his  recent  observations  in  their  city,  and 
with  a  skill  and  ingenuity,  that  would  have  done  credit  to  any 
orator  in  the  world,  abstaining  from  any  allusion  to  their  laws 
or  his  implied  violation  of  them,  he  virtually  told  them,  that  it 
was  his  mission  to  declare  to  them,  that  Deity,  the  creator  of 
heaven  and  earth,  whom  they  had  been  ignorantly  worshipping, 
and  whom  the  state  had  already  recognized  by  that  public  altar 


188  THE  ELOQUENT  0RAT0E8 

which  it  had  erected,  with  an  inscription — "  To  the  unknown 
God." 

"  Having  thus  skillfully  opened  his  case,"  says  the  learned 
author  just  referred  to,  "  Paul  proceeded  with  his  statement  ; 
and  it  is  very  safe  to  say,  that  in  all  the  choicest  oratory  of  the 
heathen  world,  there  is  nothing  to  compare  with  the  splendor, 
majesty  and  dignity  with  which  he  entered  upon  his  explana- 
tion ;  and  the  felicity  is  no  less  admirable  than  the  boldness 
with  which  he  refers  to  the  scene  by  which  he  was  surrounded. 
The  court  of  the  Areopagus  was  uncovered,  and  above  him 
was  only  the  canopy  of  heaven.  Around  him  was  pkin  and 
mountain,  and  in  the  distance  was  the  expanse  of  ocean.  Im- 
mediately before  him  was  the  Acropolis,  with  the  glorious 
Parthenon,  and  the  colossal  statue  of  Minerva,  and  a  thousand 
other  images,  many  of  them  glittering  with  silver.  How  im- 
pressively then,  but  with  what  peril,  must  he  have  uttered  these 
^Yords — '  God  that  made  the  world,  and  all  things  therein,  see- 
ing that  he  is  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  dwelleth  not  in 
temples  made  with  hands  ;  neither  is  worshipped  with  men's 
bands.' " 

Now,  if  ever  the  three  elements  of  a  great  occasion,  a  great 
subject  and  a  great  man  conspired  together  to  give  the  eloquent 
Athenians  a  specimen  of  a  great  speech,  it  was  the  case  when 
this  lone  but  fearless  ambassador  of  the  true  God,  knowing  as 
he  did  the  absolute  certainty  of  all  that  he  preached,  stood  up 
in  that  venerable  hall  which  erst  had  rung  with  the  clarion 
voice  of  Demosthenes,  to  proclaim  the  sublime  truths  of  Chris- 
tianity to  these  worshippers  of  the  unl^nown  God.  Imagine  if 
you  can  the  moral  glory  of  such  an  occasion,  such  a  theme  and 
such  a  preacher.  He  stands  in  an  open  court,  on  an  elevated 
point  of  the  city,  where  there  is  everything  around  him,  in  earth 


DF   THE   NEW.  TESTAME>IT.  189 

and  sky,  on  land  and  sea,  in  nature  and  art  to  strike  the  out- 
ward sense,  and  fill  the  soul  with  emotions  of  awe  and  grandeur. 
He  stauds  in  the  midst  of  living  men  who  claim  to  be  the  elite 
of  the  earth,  of  monuments  dedicated  to  the  mighty  dead  of  all 
past  generations,  of  temples  and  oracles  sacred  to  the  presiding 
deities  of  every  nation.  And  stands  alone,  sole  representative 
of  a  religion,  which  he  knows  by  revelation  from  heaven  shall 
one  day  dethrone  every  deity,  shut  up  every  temple  and  silence 
every  oracle  in  Athens  and  in  Greece.  And  his  task  is  so  to 
preach  that  religion  now,  as  not  to  arouse  the  prejudices  or 
excite  the  wrath  of  these  bigoted  and  boastful  philosophers. 

Most  nobly  and  successfully  does  he  perform  the  arduous 
task.  In  the  language  of  Gilfillan  :  "  He  rises  to  the  majesty 
of  the  scene.  He  fills  easily  and  amply  the  great  sphere  which 
he  finds  around  him.  He  feels  the  dignity  of  his  position.  He 
knows  he  has  a  message  from  the  God  who  made  that  ocean, 
these  mountains  and  these  heavens.  The  men  of  Athens  are 
clamoring  for  some  new  thing  ;  he  has  the  latest  news  from  the 
throne  of  God.  They  are  worshipping  the  'unknown  God  ;'  it 
is  his  task  to  unveil  his  image  and  show  him  shining  in  the  face 
of  Jesus  Christ.  In  nine  immortal  sentences  he  condenses  all 
the  primal  truths  of  nature  and  of  Christianity." 

But  as  the  speech  is  short  and  at  all  times  worthy  of  our 
profoundest  study,  let  us  now  quote  it  entire  : 

**  Ye  men  of  Athens,  I  perceive  that  in  all  things  ye  are  too 
superstitious  (or  rather  ye  are  overmuch  devout).  For  as  I 
passed  and  beheld  your  devotions,  I  found  an  altar  with  this 
inscription,  '  To  the  unknown  God.'  Whom  therefore  ye  igno- 
rantly  worship,  him  declare  I  unto  you.  God  that  made  the 
world,  and  all  things  therein,  seeing  that  he  is  Lord  of  heaven 
and  earth,  dwelleth  not  in  temples  made  with  hands  j  neither 


190  THE  ELOQUENT  ORATORS 

is  worshipped  with  men's  hands,  as  though  he  needed  anything, 
seeing  he  giveth  to  all  life  and  breath  and  all  things.  And 
hath  made  of  one  blood,  all  nations  of  men,  for  to  dwell  on  all 
the  face  of  the  earth,  and  hath  determined  the  times  before 
appointed,  and  the  bounds  of  their  habitation  :  that  they  should 
seek  the  Lord,  if  haply  they  might  feel  after  him  and  find  him, 
though  he  be  not  far  from  every  one  of  us.  For  in  him  we  live 
and  move  and  have  our  being  ;  as  certain  also  of  your  own 
poets  have  said — *  For  we  are  also  his  offspring.'  For  as  much 
then,  as  we  are  the  offspring  of  God,  we  ought  not  to  think 
that  the  Godhead  is  like  unto  gold  or  silver  or  stone,  graven 
by  art  and  man's  device.  And  the  times  of  this  ignorance  God 
winked  at  ;  but  now  commandeth  all  men  everywhere  to  repent. 
Because  he  hath  appointed  a  day,  in  the  which  he  will  judge 
the  world  in  righteousness,  by  that  man  whom  he  hath  ordain- 
ed ;  whereof  he  hath  given  assurance  unto  all  men  in  that  he 
hath  raised  him  from  the  dead." 

And  when  they  heard  of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead — a  doc- 
trine deeply  repugnant  to  the  Greeks,  though  they  held  the 
immortality  of  the  soul — "  Some  mocked,  but  others  said  we 
will  hear  thee  again  of  this  matter.  So  Paul  departed  from 
among  them.  Howbeit  certain  men  clave  unto  him  and  believed  ; 
among  whom  was  Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  and  a  woman 
named  Damaris,  and  others  with  them."  His  labor  had  not 
been  in  vain.  These  persons,  no  doubt,  became  the  nucleus 
of  a  church  at  Athens — the  first  fruits  of  Attica  to  the 
Lord. 

Now  what,  think  you,  would  have  been  the  judgment  of  man- 
kind, if,  instead  of  a  mere  synopsis  like  this,  one  of  Paul's  dis- 
courses as  long  as  those  of  Demosthenes  and  Cicero,  had  come 
down  to  us  ?     Suppose  we  had  one  of  his  speeches  as  complete 


OF   THE   NEW    TESTAMENT.  191 

as  the  longest  of  his  epistles.  He  had  too  much  to  do  to  write 
his  sermons  ;  and  there  was  no  one  to  report  them  in  full.  But 
suppose  we  could  now  read  all  he  said  on  Mars  Hill,  or  all  that 
speech  which  made  Felix  tremble,  or  that  which  almost  per- 
suaded Agrippa,  or  that  which  he  delivered  at  Jerusalem  in 
Hebrew,  what  would  be  our  judgment  of  his  eloquence,  arguing 
from  the  less  to  the  greater?  After  reading  Demosthenes 
throusrh  an  hour's  oration,  we  do  not  wonder  that  the  Athe- 
nians  rent  the  air  with  the  cry — "  Let  us  rise  and  march  against 
Philip."  But  suppose  the  world  had  to  measure  the  calibre  of 
the  Grecian  or  the  Roman  orator  by  fragments  of  their 
speeches,  no  longer  than  those  of  Paul  on  Mars  Hill.  Might 
not  the  world  greatly  modify  its  opinions  as  to  their  compara- 
tive merits  ? 

But  it  may  be  objected  to  all  this,  that  Paul  speaks  dispara- 
gingly of  his  own  eloquence.  We  do  not  wonder  that  he,  who 
had  seen  the  glory  of  Jesus,  who  had  been  "  caught  up  into 
paradise,  where  he  heard  unspeakable  words,  which  it  is  not 
lawful  for  a  man  to  utter,"  and  who  in  view  of  the  Divine  holi- 
ness was  accustomed  to  deprecate  all  excellency  of  speech  or 
wisdom  of  words,  as  used  by  the  men  of  this  world,  and  to 
speak  of  himself  as  the  chief  of  sinners — should  also  speak  of 
of  his  "  bodily  presence  as  weak  and  his  speech  is  contemptible." 
But  whatever  he  thought  of  himself,  it  is  clear  that  none  of  his 
hearers,  not  even  the  enemies  who  said  so,  ever  thought  his 
speech  contemptible  or  his  bodily  presence  weak.  Though  his 
name  was  Paul,  the  little,  he  had  a  mouth  and  wisdom  which 
none  of  his  enemies  could  gainsay  or  resist — an  eloquence  of 
utterance  and  a  soul  of  energy  which  never  failed  him.  The 
true  gauge  of  the  power  of  words  lies  in  what  words  can 
accomplish.     Words  not  backed  by  deeds  never  were,  and  never 


192  THE  ELOQUENT  ORATORS 

can  be  eloquent.  Eloquence  is  great  only  wlien  it  can  do  great 
things,  or  what  is  the  same,  make  others  do  them. 

Now  it  is  manifest,  that  in  the  whole  Jewish,  Grecian  and 
Roman  world,  there  was  no  power,  iotellectual  or  moral,  which 
could  stand  up  against  Paul ;  none,  in  fact,  that  ever  did  with- 
stand him  but  the  power  of  mere  brute  force.  Physically,  of 
course,  the  Roman  Empire  was  stronger  than  Paul  and  his  fel- 
low apostles  ;  but  in  every  other  sense,  they  were  more  than  a 
match  for  the  world,  as  the  result  proved.  And  as  the  chief 
instrumentality  which  they  used  in  accomplishing  their  great 
work,  was  public  speaking — the  preaching  of  the  truth  ;  so,  we 
must  pronounce  the  public  speaking,  which  had  such  power  to 
move  the  world,  eloquence  of  the  highest  order  ;  and  none  the 
less  so,  but  indeed  all  the  more  so,  because  it  was  wielded  by  a 
Divine  power. 

There  are  several  incidents  recorded  of  Paul's  public  speak- 
ing which  evince  his  consummate  ability  and  address  as  an 
orator.  For  instance,  you  remember  how,  at  Lystra,  the  priest 
of  Mercury  was  about  to  offer  sacrifice  to  him  as  the  chief 
speaker,  under  the  impression  that  the  god  of  eloquence  had 
come  down.  That  such  a  man  as  Felix  should  be  made  to 
tremble  on  his  seat  of  power,  when  he  reasoned  of  righteousness, 
temperance  and  judgment  to  come,  is  another  proof  of  it.  And 
that  such  a  man  as  x\grippa  should  be  made  to  confess  himself 
almost  persuaded  to  be  a  Christian  before  all  the  court  of  Festus, 
is  still  another.  See,  too,  with  what  promptness  and  graceful 
majesty,  he  replied  to  the  rude  interruption  of  the  governor. 
"  I  am  not  mad,  most  noble  Festus,  but  speak  forth  the  words 
of  truth  and  soberness."  You  may  remember  also  how  at  one 
time  he  carried  his  cause  triumphantly  over  the  Sanhedrim  by 
taking  advantage  of  their  own  dissensions,  and  rebuked  the 


OF    THK    NEW    TESTAMENT.  193 

high  priest  in  his  very  chair  of  office,  with  the  bold  and  terrible 
retort — "  God  shall  smite  thee,  thou  whited  wall  :  for  sittest 
thou  to  judge  me  after  the  law,  and  commandest  me  to  be 
smitten  contrary  to  law  ?"  You  may  remember  how  at  last  hav- 
ing won  for  himself  the  reputation  of  "  turning  the  world  upside 
down,"  which  in  fact  he  had  done,  though  not,  like  the  mighty 
men  of  this  world,  with  the  thunders  of  any  human  artillery,  or 
the  lightning  of  any  physical  sword,  he  took  an  appeal  from  all 
the  petty  tribunals,  both  of  Jew  and  Gentile,  and  carried  up  his 
great  cause,  the  cause  of  Christianity  against  the  world,  to  the 
highest  tribunal  on  earth,  the  judgment  bar  of  Cassar,  where  he 
tells  us,  *'  no  man  stood  with  him."  No  man,  learned  in  the 
law  of  nations,  ever  baffled  his  adversaries  and  covered  them 
with  confusion  more  effectually  than  Paul  did  by  this  appeal. 
And  never  did  an  orator  have  a  nobler  cause  to  plead,  or  occupy 
a  position  of  higher  moral  grandeur,  than  Paul  held,  when  thus 
appealing,  he  stood  before  Nero.  What  would  we  not  give  to 
have  that  speech  ? 

We  have  all,  perhaps,  admired  the  lofty  bearing  with  which, 
in  different  lands  and  in  different  ages,  the  preachers  of  the 
go-pel,  as  if  animated  by  one  spirit,  have  stood  up  for  the  defence 
of  truth  and  right  in  the  presence  of  the  kings  and  nobles  and 
mighty  men  of  the  earth.  There  is  nothing  in  the  history  of 
man  more  glorious  than  this.  There  are  no  deeds  that  men 
have  ever  done,  which  have  more  successfully  vindicated  the 
dignity  of  human  nature,  and  made  man  worthy  of  the  attention 
of  angels,  than  these  brave  deeds  of  the  unarmed  preachers  of 
the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.  We  have  read  how  the  corrupt 
court  of  France  was  often  made  to  tremble  under  the  daring 
appeals  and  applications  of  Bossuet,  Bourdaloue,  and  Massillon. 
We  have  read  how  the  trumpet  tongue  of  John  Knox,  anawed 

0 


19^  THE    ELOQUENT    ORATORS 

by  royalty  and  beauty  even  in  tears,  failed  not  to  charge  home 
the  sins  and  follies  of  the  Queen  of  Scots.  We  have  read  how 
George  II.  of  England  was  awed  into  silence  and  admiration, 
when  rebuked  for  his  levity,  by  Samuel  Davies  of  Virginia, 
saying  to  him — "  When  Jehovah  speaks,  let  the  Kings  of  the 
earth  keep  silence."  We  have  read  how  Wickllffe  and  Luther, 
Wishart  and  Rogers,  Bunyan  and  Baxter,  and  a  cloud  of  such 
witnesses  for  the  truth,  stood  up  boldly  against  the  strongholds 
of  prevailing  vice  and  fashion,  and  were  not  afraid  to  beard  the 
lion  in  his  den,  when  duty  required  it. 

But  whence  this  daring  fidelity  to  the  cause  of  truth  ? 
Whence  this  heroic  devotion  to  principles  for  which  no  Grecian 
or  Roman  orator  ever  died  ?  In  what  school  did  the  preachers 
of  righteousnes  learn  this  brave  style  of  eloquence  ?  Why 
have  they  been  so  sublime  ?  The  answer  is  obvious.  It  lies  in 
the  fact,  that  they  have  taken  Paul  and  his  fellow  apostles  as 
their  models,  and  they  have  only  followed  in  the  footsteps  of 
these  inspired  orators,  even  as  they  followed  in  the  footsteps  of 
Christ. 

XI. DISCOURSES    OF    OUR   LORD. 

But  if  such  be  the  eloquence  of  his  ministers  and  servants, 
what  shall  we  say  of  the  Master  himself  ?  If  such  distinction 
belong  to  the  merely  human  orators  of  the  Bible,  as  compared 
with  those  of  other  nations,  how  shall  we  speak  of  the  Divine 
preeminence  of  that  eloquent  voice,  which  once  shook  the  earth, 
and  shall  yet  once  more  shake  both  earth  and  heaven  !  If  any 
thing  more  were  wanting  to  complete  our  picture,  to  place  the 
seal  of  triumph  and  glory  upon  these  inspired  orators,  and  to 
exalt  the  eloquence  of  the  pulpit  above  every  other  kind  of  elo- 


OF   THE   KEW    TESTAMENT.  195 

quence,  it  is  found  in  the  fact  tliat  Christ  the  son  ot  God  was 
a  public  speaker  and  a  preacher  of  the  gospel. 

It  would  seem  at  first  view  hardly  lawful  to  call  him  an  ora- 
tor :  and  yet,  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  term,  he  was  as  truly 
a  human  and  Divine  orator,  as  he  was  both  God  and  man.  He 
spoke  in  public  and  in  private.  His  converse  was  with  God 
and  with  man.  His  great  mediatorial  office  of  prophet  made 
him  a  public  teacher  to  the  world.  As  an  ambassador  sent  from 
Heaven,  he  had  a  great  mission  to  establish  and  proclaim  by 
mighty  works  and  mighty  words.  His  ministry  of  three  years 
was  a  period  of  almost  daily  public  speaking.  "  To  you,  0  men, 
I  call,  and  my  voice  is  to  the  sons  of  men."  Speech,  public, 
private,  unceasing,  human  speech  was  one  of  the  grand  instru- 
ments of  his  power  on  the  world,  one  of  the  essential  departments 
of  the  work  he  came  to  do. 

AVhat  must  have  been  the  soft,  beseeching  music  of  that  voice, 
of  which  it  is  written,  that  they  "  wondered  at  the  gracious 
words  which  proceeded  out  of  his  mouth  :"  "  The  common  peo- 
ple heard  him  gladly  :"  "  He  spake  as  one  having  authority,  and 
not  as  the  scribes  ;"  "  Never  man  spake  as  this  man  ?''  What 
must  have  been  the  eloquent  Divine  power  of  that  voice  of  wis- 
dom, love  and  authority,  which  sometimes  put  every  adversary 
to  silence,  and  sounded  the  very  depths  of  the  human  heart,  so 
as  to  reveal  all  it  had  ever  felt  or  done — that  voice,  which  from 
the  mountain's  brow,  beneath  the  tranquil  skies,  in  view  of 
the  bright  glad  waters  of  the  sea  of  Galilee,  breathed  forth  its 
words  of  blessing  and  salvation  to  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house 
of  Israel — that  voice  whose  every  accent  was  in  such  deep  sym- 
pathy with  human  want  and  woe,  that  it  could  speak  peace 
to  the  troubled  soul,  joy  to  the  desolate,  light  for  the  straying, 
pardon  for  the  guilty,  health  for  the  sick,  hope  for  the  despairing, 


196  THE  ELOQUENT  OEATOES 

life  for  the  dying — that  voice  which  had  such  absohite  com 
mand  over  all  the  elements  of  nature,  that  it  could  say  to  the 
raging  winds  and  waters — "  Peace,  be  still  ;"  and  there  was  a 
calm  ;  or  to  the  dull  cold  ear  of  death — "  Damsel,  arise,"  "Lazarus, 
come  forth  ;"  and  it  was  obeyed — that  voice,  whose  possessor 
was  in  such  sublime  communion  and  harmony  with  the  heavenly 
world,  that  thrice  did  he  draw  down  a  response  and  testimony 
from  God,  as  if  it  had  been  a  voice  of  thunder  or  of  an  angel. 

Talk  we  of  the  eloquence  of  human  tongues  ?  Here  is  a  voice 
of  Divine  eloquence,  clothing  itself  in  the  language  of  men,  but 
fresh  from  Heaven,  which  the  living  and  the  dying  of  every 
generation  have  listened  to,  as  they  have  to  no  other  voice. 
'Tis  the  voice  of  Jesus,  the  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with 
grief,  but  God  over  all  and  blessed  forever.  In  his  very  name 
there  is  a  music  and  a  charm  which  no  other  name  of  men 
or  angels  can  inspire.  In  his  voice  there  is  an  eloquence  and  a 
power  which  can  awake  the  dead — which  all  that  are  in  their 
graves  shall  hear,  and  when  they  hear  it,  shall  spring  to  life 
again.  'Tis  the  voice  of  him  who  made  the  world,  who  '•'  spake 
and  it  was  done  ;  who  commanded,  and  it  stood  fast."  Tlie 
first  voice  to  which  these  heavens  and  earth  reverberated  at  the 
beginning,  saying,  "  Let  there  be  light,"  is  the  same  voice  that 
is  appointed  to  wake  the  dead  and  close  the  scenes  of  time.  So 
that  the  Bible  opens  and  closes,  like  the  course  of  time,  with 
the  voice  of  God.  Jesus,  the  great  teacher,  prophet,  priest  and 
king  of  our  salvation,  is  the  first  and  last  to  speak  on  the  grand 
theatre  of  this  material  creation — the  Alpha  and  Omega,  alike 
of  all  human  eloquence  and  all  created  existence.  How  pro- 
found— how  sublime — how  solemn  his  words  :  "  Marvel  not  at 
this  ;  the  hour  cometh,  in  which  all  that  are  in  their  graves  shall 
hear  his  voice,  and  they  that  hear  shall  live." 


OF   THE    NEW    TESTAMENT.  197 

We  need  not  dwell  upon  the  peculiar  characteristics  of  our 
Saviour's  public  and  private  discourses.  They  must  be  familiar 
to  all.  But  his  discourses  stand  alone,  and  unapproachable  in 
the  history  of  literature  and  of  eloquence.  No  other  teacher,  not 
even  his  inspired  Apostles,  ever  spoke  as  he  did.  You  will  call 
to  mind  at  once  his  remarkable  parables,  of  which  about  thirty 
are  recorded  at  length,  and  which,  for  originality,  beauty,  and 
power  of  truth,  have  no  parallel  in  human  language.  They 
have  been  the  study  and  the  admiration  of  the  world  for  eight- 
teen  centuries.  You  will  think  also  of  his  wonderful  sermon  on 
the  Mount,  which  at  one  view  embraces  all  the  great  essential 
principles  of  morality  and  virtue,  as  well  as  all  the  primary 
precepts  of  the  gospel.  You  will  remember  too  all  those  fear 
ful  denunciations  of  woe  and  impending  judgment  which  he 
seems  to  have  uttered  against  the  Pharisees  and  wicked  rulers 
of  Jerusalem,  as  if  every  sentence  had  drawn  from  him  a  tear- 
You  will  readily  call  to  mind  the  many  occasions  on  which  he, 
by  a  few  heart-searching  words,  stripped  off  all  the  disguises 
of  his  foes  and  put  to  silence  and  confusion  those  who  had  laid 
snares  to  destroy  him,  by  reporting  what  he  said.  And  you  will 
not  forget  those  long,  affectionate,  parting  discourses,  reported 
by  John,  which  he  delivered  to  his  disciples  on  the  night  before 
his  death.  If  there  is  pathos — if  there  is  earnestness — if  there 
is  sublime  truth — if  there  is  the  soul  of  eloquence,  to  be  found 
in  words,  you  have  all  in  these  farewell  words,  these  sacred 
*'  memorabilia  "  of  Jesus. 

Socrates  was  a  great  and  wise  man  for  his  generation.  For 
a  Greek  and  a  heathen,  he  had  made  great  attainments  in  prac- 
tical wisdom.  But,  living  or  dying,  he  uttered  no  such  senti- 
ments of  sublimity  and  truth,  as  these  last  sayings  of  Jesus. 
There  is  no  such  Divine  consolation,  no  such  voice  of  eloquence 


198  THE  ELOQUENT  ORATOES 

to  sustain  and  cheer  the  soul  in  its  passage  through  the  dark 
valley  and  shadow  of  death.  One  sentence  from  the  lips  of 
Jesus  has  more  to  comfort  and  inspire,  than  all  the  Socratic 
philosophy  of  the  "Memorabilia."  It  may  be  doubted,  after  all, 
whether  in  all  points,  Socrates  lived  or  died,  as  he  had  taught, 
like  a  philosopher :  but  the  world  has  never  questioned  that 
Jesus  Christ  lived,  and  taught,  and  died,  as  never  man  did — as 
none  but  God  could  do. 


.    XII. — CONCLUSION. 

But  finally  ;  from  the  survey  now  taken  of  the  eloquent 
oratory  of  the  Bible,  both  in  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New, 
the  conclusion  seems  fair  and  legitimate,  that  this  book  is 
entitled  to  hold  the  first  rank  in  the  annals  of  human  eloquence  ; 
that  it  contains  models  of  thought  and  expression  in  almost 
every  department  of  speech,  possessing  the  highest  attractions 
of  taste  and  genius,  as  well  as  of  inspiration — models  equal,  if 
not  superior,  to  any  that  mortal  ears  have  ever  listened  to,  or 
human  hearts  ever  felt. 

Now  this  is  no  small  claim  which  we  arc  making  for  the  Book  of 
God,  when  we  ascribe  to  it  the  highest  attractions  of  eloquence. 
For  there  is  nothing  in  all  the  walks  of  genius  that  men  more 
admire  than  real  eloquence  :  and  it  is  impossible  to  over-esti- 
mate the  influence  which  eloquence  has  wielded  over  the  des- 
tinies of  men  and  nations.  The  gift  of  speech  is  one  of  the 
greatest  and  best  of  God's  gifts  to  man.  The  tongue  of  elo- 
quence is  one  of  the  sublimest  and  most  effective  of  all  the 
endowments  of  genius. 

There  is  no  music  this  side  of  the  music  of  the  spheres  and 


OF   THE   NEW    TESTAMENT.  199 

the  songs  of  angels,  so  sweet  and  entrancing  as  the  music  of 
the  human  voice.  There  is  no  creature  that  God  hath  placed 
on  earth  so  eloquent,  so  musical,  as  man  ;  and  there  is  no  elo- 
quence or  music  which  man  can  make,  so  sublime  and  godlike, 
as  that  which  he  makes  with  his  voice.  Man  hath  sought  out 
many  inventions  to  extend  his  dominion  and  supplement  his 
power  ;  but  there  is  no  instrument  yet  invented  so  attractive, 
so  sublime,  so  sweet  as  his  voice.  "What  is  the  inarticulate 
roar  of  the  cannon,  or  burst  of  the  bomb-shell,  or  beat  of  the 
drum,  or  blast  of  the  bugle,  or  whistle  of  the  steam  car,  or 
pealing  note  of  the  organ,  compared  with  the  thought-laden 
thunder  and  meaning-melody  of  the  human  voice  ?  What  is 
the  rude  roar  of  the  monarch  of  the  forest,  or  the  wild  scream 
of  the  eagle,  or  the  loud  neighing  of  the  steed,  or  the  sweetest 
music  of  the  nightingale,  compared  with  the  male  or  female 
voice  of  our  species  ?  Nay  further  ;  what  is  even  the  deep- 
toned  anthem  of  the  sea,  and  the  earthquake,  the  cataract,  the 
volcano  and  the  storm  ?  It  is  louder  and  stronger  ;  but  is  it 
more  eloquent  and  sublime,  than  the  articulate,  intelligent  voice 
of  man  ?  Says  the  apostle,  "  there  are,  it  may  be,  so  many 
kinds  of  voices  in  the  world,  and  none  of  them  is  without  signi- 
fication." But  there  is  no  voics  on  earth  so  significant  as 
man's.  There  are  voices  of  music,  eloquence,  poesy — voices  of 
high  and  holy  significance  to  the  ear  of  reason  and  religion — 
in  all  the  realms  of  nature  ;  but  it  is  only  when  the  human 
voice  hath  taken  them  up  and  given  to  them  a  tongue  in  human 
speech,  that  these  inarticulate  voices  of  nature  become  intelligi 
ble,  eloquent  and  sublime. 

But  these,  you  may  say,  are  the  voices  of  God.  In  the  very 
same  sense  is  the  voice  of  man  the  voice  of  God  ;  for  he  is  its 
author.     The  great  intellect — the  great  orator,  with   all   the 


200  THE  ELOQUENT  ORATORS 

music  of  his  eloquent  tongue,  is  not  less  the  workmanship  of 
God,  than  is  the  great  mountain  or  the  great  sea.  A  distin^ 
guished  statesman  and  orator  of  our  times,  Lord  Brougham, 
has  remarked  that  a  great  mind,  on  some  important  occasion 
and  some  lofty  theme,  giving  utterance  to  itself  in  eloquent 
speech,  is  the  sublimest  spectacle  which  the  world  now  affords. 
Who  has  not  felt  the  force  of  that  remark  ?  If  we  include,  as 
we  ought,  in  the  term  eloquence,  man's  address  to  God  in 
prayer  as  well  as  his  address  to  his  fellow-men,  it  is  clear,  that 
eloquent  speech  is  the  sublimest  act  which  he  can  perform, 
since  the  age  of  miracles.  In  accordance  with  this  idea,  we 
find  the  inspired  Psalmist  repeatedly  speaking  of  his  tongue  or 
voice  as  the  glory  of  his  physical  frame:  "  Wake  up  my 
glory,"  "  I  will  sing  and  praise  thee  with  my  glory."  If  it 
were  possible,  who  now  would  not  give  more  to  hear  Paul's 
speech  on  Mars  Hill,  or  before  the  bar  of  Nero,  than  to  see  the 
Parthenon  at  Athens,  or  the  Coliseum  and  Pantheon  at  Rome 
in  all  their  glory  ?  Who  that  has  a  soul  within  him,  would  not 
go  farther  to  lioar  Chalmers  or  Robert  Hall  preach,  than  to 
see  London  or  Edinburgh,  Ben  Nevis  or  Loch  Lomond  ?  The 
grandest  monument  of  human  art  now  on  earth,  is  probably  St. 
Peter's  at  Rome  ;  but  who  would  not  pay  more  for  one  hear- 
ing of  Sheridan's  speech  on  the  trial  of  Warren  Hastings, 
than  for  one  vision  even  of  all  the  glory  of  St.  Peters  ?  The 
cataract  of  Niagara  is  considered  the  sublimest  single  spectacle 
in  all  the  realms  of  nature  ;  but  where  is  the  man,  who,  if  he 
had  the  option  of  gazing  for  an  hour  on  that  "glorious  robe 
of  beauty  and  of  power,"  or  of  hearing  Patrick  Henry,  or 
Henry  Clay  speak  an  hour,  would  not  say,  let  me  hear  the 
great  man  eloquent  ?  Yes,  we  hold  this  double  truth — that 
man  himself,  is,  after  all,  the  sublimest  of  all  God's  works  on 


OF   THE   NEW    TESTAMENT.  201 

earth,  and  that  eloquence  is  the  sublimest  of  all  the  acts  of 
man,  provided  only  he  be  a  true  man. 

Hence  we  are  not  surprised  at  the  prominence  which  public 
speaking  holds  in  the  Bible,  and  in  the  whole  economy  of  God's 
grace  to  the  world.  We  do  not  wonder  that  God  hath  ordained 
by  public  speech — the  preaching  of  the  cross — to  accomplish 
the  greatest  work  that  is  ever  to  be  done  on  earth.  In  the 
conversion  of  a  sinner  to  God,  through  the  preaching  of  the 
truth — in  the  conversion  of  a  world  to  God,  by  the  agency  of 
living,  speaking  men,  the  gospel  has  given  to  human  eloquence 
at  once  its  noblest  mission,  and  its  grandest  development. 

By  all  that  admiration,  then,  which  we  feel  for  genius  and 
eloquence  when  employed  in  the  accomplishment  of  the  greatest 
and  noblest  ends,  we  are  attracted  to  the  Bible  as  the  book  of 
books.  And  in  all  that  superiority,  which,  from  the  sublimity 
and  importance  of  their  themes,  its  orators  have  attained  over 
others,  we  have  an  argument  that  the  book  is  from  God.  For 
that  its  comparatively  unfavored  orators,  in  what  has  been 
called  a  rude,  unlettered  age,  and  of  an  unartistic  race,  should 
have  reached  this  perfection  of  beauty  and  sublimity,  and 
should  still  hold  an  acknowledged  mastery  over  all  civilized 
nations,  are  facts  which  admit  of  but  one  solution — which  is, 
that  God  himself  is  the  great  speaker,  and  all  its  other  speak- 
ers have  been  his  mouth-piece,  his  authorized  oracles  and  am- 
bassadors. 


9* 


202  TYPES  OF  FEMALE  CHARACTER 


CHAPTER  V. 
TYPES  OF  FEMALE  CHARACTER  IN  THE  BIBLE. 

Interest  of  the  Subject— General  View— Classification— Picture  of  Eve— Sarah  and 
Rebekah— Character  of  Deborah— Character  of  Esther  and  Ruth— Jezebel  and  Atha- 
liah— HerodiaB  and  her  dancing  Daughter— Abigail,  Hannah,  and  Martha— The  Ma- 
rys—Concluding Remarks. 

I. INTEREST    OF    THE    SUBJECT. 

In  illustration  of  our  main  proposition  in  these  pages — the 
classical  attractiveness  of  the  Bible — it  is  important  to  present, 
at  least,  a  specimen  of  its  historical  or  biographical  characters. 
In  nothing  perhaps  does  its  superiority  over  all  other  books 
appear  more  manifest,  than  in  its  brief,  graphic,  inimitable  del 
ineations  of  human  character.  From  first  to  last,  it  opens  to 
our  view,  besides  its  poets  and  orators,  a  magnificent  succession 
of  living  characters — kings  and  statesmen,  heroes  and  sages, 
patriarchs,  prophets,  and  apostles,  young  men  and  maidens, 
old  men  and  children.  In  a  field  so  vast,  where  volumes  might 
be  filled,  we  can  only  select  a  few  prominent  groups,  by  way  of 
example.  For  this  purpose,  let  us  take  first  the  Women  of  the 
Bible,  or,  as  they  may  be  called  in  modern  phrase,  "  the  Ladies 
of  the  olden  time."  In  order  to  win  from  the  youth  of  both 
sexes  a  deep  and  abiding  interest  in  our  task  at  the  outset,  we 
would  here  seek  to  present,  on  the  foreground  of  the  picture, 
the  loveliest  group  of  all.     We  would  call  them  to  the  contem- 


IN    THE    BIBLE.  203 

plation  of  a  woman  in  her  most  ancient  record.  W^e  would 
invite  them  to  look  first  upon  that  character,  which,  in  an 
ascending  scale,  was  the  last  to  appear  amid  the  scenes  of  crea- 
tion, and  which,  by  being  last,  seemed  to  bear  the  aspect  of  the 
most  finished  production  of  creative  wisdom,  and  the  nearest 
approximation  to  Divine  perfection,  of  all  that  was  made. 
Woman's  earliest,  noblest  record  is  the  Bible  ;  and  upon  this 
fact  we  would  now  fix  your  attention  as  one  of  the  chief  attrac- 
tions of  the  book. 

You  are,  doubtless,  familiar  with  the  record  of  her  virtues, 
her  sufierings,  and  her  achievements,  in  other  books  and  on 
other  fields  of  fame.  You  have  all,  perhaps,  read  the  story  of 
the  heroic  women  of  the  American  Eevolution,  or  that  of  the 
memorable  women  of  Scotland's  covenant  ;  yoa  have  heard  the 
fame  of  many  a  noble  lady  in  many  a  royal  court  during  the 
age  of  chivalry  and  romance  ;  you  have  admired  the  renowned 
matrons  of  Grecian  and  Eoman  history  ;  and  you  have  marked, 
with  a  peculiar  pleasure,  the  luminous  patliway  of  woman  in  all 
those  fields  of  literature,  of  beneficence,  and  of  Christian  mis- 
sions, which  have  been  opened  to  her  by  our  modern  civilization. 
But  it  is  not  of  any  of  these  that  we  are  now  to  speak.  Our 
present  purpose  is  to  ascend  the  stream  of  female  biography  to 
its  fountain-head  ;  to  read  a  record  of  higher  antiquity  and 
nobler  heraldry  than  any  of  tliese  could  boast  ;  in  short  ,to  carry 
you  back,  and,  if  you  have  not  already  formed  the  acquaintance, 
to  introduce  you  to  the  beautiful,  the  heroic,  the  artless,  the 
pure-minded,  the  queen-like,  the  oft-inspired  women  of  the 
Scriptures. 

In  the  portraiture  of  female  character  which  is  presented  in 
the  Bible,  we  behold  a  galaxy  of  moral  and  spiritual  beauty, 
excelling  all  the  ancient  world,  and  still  shining  out  from  the 


204:  TYPES    OF    FEMALE    CHAKACTER 

darkness  of  ages  in  all  its  original,  undimmed  radiance.  We 
gaze  upon  it  with  admiration,  as  we  do  upon  the  star-geramed 
firmament  of  the  night,  which  has  lost  nothing  through  the 
lapse  of  time,  but  is  as  fresh  and  lovely  now  as  when  the  even- 
ing and  morning  closed  the  first  week  of  creation.  In  the 
women  of  the  Bible  we  see  something  of  that  native  beauty 
which  is  unindebted  to  the  tricks  of  art,  and  which,  when 
"  unadorned  is  adorned  the  most."  In  these  ladies  of  the  olden 
time,  these  honored  women  of  the  earth's  first  golden  age,  we 
have  those  primeval  types  of  womanly  beauty  and  glory,  which, 
like  originals  from  the  great  masters  of  painting  and  sculpture, 
have  stood  for  the  study  and  admiration  of  the  world.  More 
heroic  than  the  mothers  of  our  revolutionary  struggle,  more 
saintly  than  the  high-souled  daughters  of  Scotland's  covenant, 
more  queenly  than  the  queens  of  any  royal  court,  more  renowned 
than  all  the  ladies  fair  for  whom  the  wars  of  chivalry  were 
waged,  more  majestic  and  sublime  in  virtue  than  Lucretia  or  any 
matron  of  Grecian  and  Roman  story,  more  beautiful  and  glori- 
ous than  Rebekah  the  Jewess  in  Ivanhoe  or  any  other  creation 
of  romance,  the  women  of  the  Bible,  in  all  that  constitutes  the 
peculiar  glory  of  their  sex,  have  stood  through  ages  as  the 
brightest  exemplars  to  mankind.  Embosomed  on  the  pages  of 
sacred  history,  like  stars  upon  the  diadem  of  night,  these  daugh- 
ters and  sisters  of  the  patriarchs,  these  wives  and  mothers  of  the 
sons  of  God,  have  been  shining  there,  as  by  heaven's  appoint- 
ment they  were  intended  to  shine,  for  the  guidance  of  the 
women  of  every  generation  to  the  end  of  time.  What  they 
have  been  thus  far,  they  are  still — the  most  perfect  models 
by  which  to  form  the  manners  and  the  moral  character  of 
woman. 

To  the  contemplation  of  these  models,  your  attention  is  now 


IN    THE    BIBLE.  205 

invited.  Amid  the  hurry  and  bustle  of  this  age  of  excitement, 
and  empty  show,  and  heartless  fashion,  it  may  do  ns  good  to  go 
back  occasionally  to  the  simplicity  of  nature.  We  live  in  an 
age  of  wonders.  On  all  hands  we  hear  the  cry  of  new  inven- 
tions, the  boast  of  improvement,  the  march  of  mind,  the  din  of 
many  running  to  and  fro,  and  knowledge  increasing.  Almost 
everybody  smatters  of  science,  and  almost  everything  hisses 
with  steam.  Everything  is  in  motion,  and  everybody  seems 
to  be  striving  to  verify  the  couplet — 

"  Tramp,  tramp  along  the  land  we  go, 
Splash,  splash  across  the  sei." 

At  such  a  time  it  may  be  as  delightful  as  it  is  profitable,  to 
escape  from  these  scenes  of  noise  and  confusion,  and  take  re- 
fuge, at  least  for  an  hour,  in  that  old  world  of  tranquillity  and 
peace,  where,  beneath  genial  skies,  and  amid  rural  scenes,  the 
mothers,  wives,  and  daughters  of  patriarchs  and  kings,  prophets 
and  apostles,  dwelt  so  long  to  make  home  happy,  and  prepare  for 
heaven.  Such  a  retrospect  of  the  past,  and  such  a  contempla- 
tion of  the  biography  of  the  highly-favored  women  of  the  Bible, 
may  well  be  considered  appropriate  here,  if  we  shall  succeed 
at  all  in  commending  these  pages  to  the  parents  and  teachers, 
above  all,  to  the  mothers  and  daughters,  of  our  times.  The 
theme  is  one  which  is  strictly  and  emphatically  educational,  and 
one,  too,  which  ought  to  prove  instructive  to  the  young,  attrac* 
tive  to  all. 

II. GENERAL   VIEW. 

The  number  of  women  mentioned  in  the  Bible  by  name  is 
about  eighty,  besides  some  twenty  others,  whose  names  are  not 
given,  but  who  are  individually  described  by  their  social  rela- 


206  TYPES    OF    FEMALE    CHARACTER 

tions  ;  sucli  as  Pharaoli's  daughter,  Lot's  wife,  Peter's  wife^s 
motlier,  the  widow  of  Nain,  the  woman  of  Samaria,  the  witch 
of  Eador,  the  queen  of  Sheba,  and  the  elect  lady  of  John's  se- 
cond epistle.  We  have,  therefore,  about  one  hundred  in  all, 
whose  names  or  characters,  singled  out  from  the  general  mass, 
have  acquired  a  distinct  personality,  and  have  been  rendered 
immortal  on  the  pages  of  the  sacred  volume.  Their  history, 
left  on  record  by  the  infallible  pen  of  inspiration,  runs  through  a 
period  of  four  thousand  years  ;  from  Eve,  the  first  wife  and 
mother  of  our  race,  down  to  that  excellent  lady  to  whom  the 
beloved  disciple,  inditing  his  second  epistle,  says  :  "  I  rejoiced 
greatly  that  I  found  of  thy  children  walking  in  truth."  Their 
biography  is  written  with  every  varying  degree  of  fullness,  from 
a  single  significant  name,  like  that  of  Josiah's  mother,  Jedidah, 
"the  amiable,  the  well-beloved,"  or  that  of  Job's  daughter, 
Jemima,  "  handsome  as  the  day,"  up  to  a  description  so  com- 
plete that  it  gives  name  to  a  whole  book,  as  in  the  case  of  Ruth 
and  Esther.  Their  lives,  characters,  and  fortunes,  as  delineated 
between  these  extremes,  are  beautifully  diversified  with  all  that 
goes  to  make  up  the  real  world — all  the  lights  and  shadows  of 
human  existence. 

There  is  no  scene  of  prosperity  or  adversity,  no  condition  of 
youth  or  old  age,  no  degree  of  joy  or  sorrow,  hope  or  despair, 
through  which  some  of  these  women  of  the  Bible  have  not  passed. 
There  is  no  relationship  of  life,  private  or  public,  domestic^ 
social,  or  civil,  in  which  woman  ever  stood  or  can  stand,  that 
they  have  not  held  ;  whilst  some  of  them  occupied  peculiar 
and  wonderful  positions  which  no  woman  will  ever  fill  again  on 
earth.  In  all  the  diversified  ranks  of  human  society,^  in  all  the 
changing  circumstances  of  wealth  and  poverty,^  of  grandeur  and 
lowliness,  they  have  stood,  from  Bathsheba,  on  the  right  hand 


IN    THE    BIBLE.  207 

of  Solomon's  throne,  and  Esther,  queen  of  a  hundred  and  twenty- 
seven  provinces,  down  to  the  poor  widow  casting  her  two  mites 
into  the  treasury,  or  Lydia  selling  her  purple,  or  Dorcas  work- 
ing at  her  garment,  or  Magdalene  weeping  at  Jesus's  feet. 

Whether  we  contemplate  the  women  of  the  Old  Testament  or 
the  New;  whether  we  follow  the  mother  of  Moses,  secretly  launch- 
ing the  frail  bark  of  her  babe  upon  the  waters  of  the  Nile,  or  the 
mother  of  Jesus,  in  the  gaze  of  the  multitude,  beholding  her  son 
and  Lord  expire  on  the  cross  ;  whether  we  look  upon  Miriam  as 
she  stands  up  exultingly  with  all  the  band  of  Israel's  daughters  on 
the  Red  Sea's  shore,  or  see  Deborah,  the  heroic,  heaven-inspired 
prophetess,  at  the  head  of  the  armies  of  Israel,  going  forth  to 
battle  against  the  enemies  of  her  country,  and  returning  with  songs 
of  victory  ;  whether  we  view  Jephthah's  daughter  laying  down 
her  young  and  lovely  life  as  a  willing  sacrifice  on  the  altar  of 
filial  duty  and  patriotism,  or  behold  the  women  of  Galilee  and  the 
daughters  of  Jerusalem,  the  Marys  and  the  Marthas,  as  in  their 
silent,  unutterable  sorrow,  they  watch  the  hill  of  death,  and  lin- 
ger around  ihe  tomb,  and  win  for  their  sex  the  imperishable  glory 
of  being  "  earliest  at  the  sepulchre  and  latest  at  the  cross  " — we 
must  acknowledge  that  there  is  no  sphere  of  honor  and  trust,  no 
post  of  danger,  trial  and  responsibility,  which  woman  ever  filled  on 
earth,  higher  than  those  which  the  women  of  the  Bible  have  filled. 

And  further  still,  in  their  moral  character  we  behold  as  great 
a  diversity  as  in  their  social  condition  and  their  external  for- 
tunes. Every  virtue,  every  grace,  every  glorious  moral  attri- 
bute that  can  adorn  and  ennoble  the  female  heart,  is  illustrated 
in  the  lives  of  some  of  them  ;  whilst  all  the  depths  of  dark  de- 
pravity, to  which  woman  ever  stooped  on  earth,  are  revealed 
in  others.  The  good  and  lovely,  however,  greatly  outnumber 
the  bad.     But  the  female  biography  of  the  whole  world  does 


208  TYPES  OF  FEMALE  CHARACTER 

not  display  more  strikingly  the  extremes  of  good  and  evil  in 
moral  character,  than  they  are  displayed  in  the  women  of  the 
Scriptures.  Nowhere  else,  except  in  the  actual  world  around 
us,  can  we  find  such  a  field  for  the  study  of  character,  such  a 
life-like  picture  of  the  heart  in  all  its  workings.  What  a  con- 
trast, for  example,  have  we  between  vile,  haggard  vice,  as  re- 
presented in  the  witch  of  Eudor,  and  calm,  celestial  virjtue,  as 
represented  in  Anna,  the  prophetess,  "  waiting  for  the  consola- 
•tion  of  Israel  !"  Look  at  those  heaven-daring  monsters  of 
cruelty,  Athaliah  and  Jezebel,  queens  of  Judah  and  Israel,  as 
contrasted  with  the  loving  sisters,  Mary  and  Martha  of  Bethany. 
Or,  behold  Naomi  and  Ruth,  in  their  humble  piety  and  whole- 
hearted affection,  as  contrasted  with  Herodias  and  her  daughter 
in  their  proud,  vindictive,  ferocious  guilt  ! 

Now  this  wide  diversity  of  female  character  is  so  exhibited  in 
the  Bible,  from  first  to  last,  as  to  make  us  admire  and  love  the 
virtuous,  whilst  we  abhor  and  loathe  the  vicious.  And  herein 
is  displayed  a  wonderful  peculiarity  of  all  the  Scripture  biog- 
raphy, both  male  and  female.  'Tis  a  peculiarity  which  reveals 
the  skill  of  a  master  mind,  and  the  delicate  touches  of  an  im- 
maculate hand.  'Tis  that  conscientious,  consistent,  ever-watch- 
ful, inflexible  regard  for  truth  and  virtue,  which  makes  us  feel 
that  these  unparalleled  portraits  could  have  been  drawn  by  no 
less  than  a  hand  Divine.  On  this  background  of  four  thousand 
years,  on  this  biographical  canvas,  stretching  from  the  Creation 
to  the  Advent,  embracing  the  widest  possible  variety  of  outline 
and  detail,  portraying  an  almost  endless  diversity  of  circum- 
stances and  social  condition,  and  comprehending  a  range  of 
moral  character  from  the  extreme  of  spotless  virtue  to  that  of 
hideous  vice,  one  hundred  of  the  most  notable  and  strongly 
marked  women  of  antiquity,  many  of  them  of  different  nations 


IN    THE   BIBLE.  209 

and  races,  are  so  presented  to  our  view  as  to  produce  invariably 
upon  every  mind,  whether  aged  or  young,  refined  or  illiterate, 
inclined  to  virtue  or  prone  to  vice,  the  same  grand  moral  im- 
pression of  admiration  for  the  virtuous  and  disgust  for  the 
vicious.  On  whatever  groups  of  the  picture  you  gaze,  whether 
on  its  angels  of  innocence  or  its  monsters  of  iniquity,  or  on  all 
the  shades  of  character  that  lie  between,  one  invariable,  salu- 
tary lesson,  of  admiration  for  the  holy  and  abhorrence  for  the 
bad,  remains  fixed  upon  the  heart  forevermore. 

You  must  not  expect  to  find  the  women  of  the  Bible  all  an- 
gels. If  they  had  been^  they  would  not  have  been  the  best 
models  for  us.  We  needed  the  shadows,  as  well  as  the  lights,  to 
form  a  perfect  picture.  But  the  thing  we  most  needed  was  the  pen- 
cil of  inspiration  ;  so  to  blend  the  lights  with  the  shadows,  as  to 
produce  the  right  moral  effect,  and  thus  to  make  the  mothers, 
wives,  and  daughters  of  the  earth's  earliest  history,  the  authorized 
models  for  moulding  the  moral  character  of  woman  in  every  age 
and  every  land  to  the  end  of  time.  Nor,  again,  must  you  expect 
to  find  even  those  women  of  the  Bible,  who  may  pass  for  an- 
gelic, altogether  or  at  all  times  such.  They  are  holy,  and  good, 
and  lovely  :  but  they  are  not  sinless.  They  are  still  of  the 
earth,  belonging  to  human  nature,  though  walking  with  God. 
And,  in  this  respect,  they  differ  from  those  ideal,  dream-like 
creatures  of  our  modern  poetry  and  fiction,  whose  idolized 
perfection  consists  in  its  infinite  unlikeness  to  anything  real 
on  earth.  Indeed,  it  is  as  much  by  the  faithfully  recorded  faults 
and  foibles,  infirmities  and  defects  of  these  scriptural  charac- 
ters, as  by  their  bright,  angelic  virtues,  that  the  spirit  of  inspira- 
tion intended  the  daughters  of  all  subsequent  ages  to  be  taught. 
For  just  as  the  extremes  of  virtue  and  vice  are  represented 
on  the  gi'eat  picture,  in  the  character  of  different  persons,  so 


210  TYPES  OF  FEMALE  CHAKACTER  - 

also  all  the  intermediate  degrees  of  good  and  evil,  in  lighter  oi 
darker  shades,  are  found  mingling  sometimes  in  the  same  person, 
and  that  person  as  Rahab,  or  Magdalene,  at  last  a  saint  of  God. 
Now,  if  the  highly-favored  ladies  of  our  times  should  be  at 
all  disposed  to  think  disparagingly  of  the  woman  of  the  Bible, 
and  to  ask  why  she  was  not  more  perfect,  more  accomplished, 
more  refined,  let  them  bear  in  mind  that  the  woman  of  the  Bi- 
ble, was  the  pioneer  of  the  world's  civilization  ;  that  she  had 
but  few  examples,  if  any,  to  study  ;  that  she  had  to  go  before 
as  an  original,  and  set  the  fashion  for  those  who  came  after- 
wards ;  that  she  had  not,  what  all  have  now,  an  inspired  vol- 
ume, containing  one  hundred  Divinely  drawn  characters,  to 
teach  her  what  woman  ought  to  be  or  ought  not  to  be.  It  is 
by  her  experience,  and  through  the  lessons  derived  from  her  ex 
ample,  that  tho  female  world  is  such  as  we  find  it  now.  She 
has  thus  become  the  riches  of  the  world,  and  by  her  instrumen- 
tality as  a  predecessor,  a  pioneer  and  a  model,  woman  has  since 
attained  that  superiority  of  position,  of  influence,  of  mental 
and  moral  culture,  which  now  distinguishes  her  in  every  civil- 
ized Christian  land.  Do  not  forget,  then,  that  if  the  woman  of 
the  Bible  had  not  been  just  what  she  was  thousands  of  years 
ago,  our  much  admired  female  friend,  who  reads  these  pages, 
would  be  very  far  from  being  the  accomplished  lady  she  now  is. 
The  proof  of  the  fact  is  seen  in  that  contrast,  which,  for  eighteen 
centuries,  has  existed  between  the  intellectual,  social,  and  mo- 
ral condition  of  woman  in  Christian  lands,  and  her  condition  in 
countries  where  no  Bible  has  been  known. 


IN    THE   BIBLE.  211 


III. CLASSIFICATION. 


This  loug  gallery  of  strikingly  diversified  female  portraits,  of 
which,  thus  far,  we  have  been  taking  only  a  distant  panoramic 
view,  may  now  be  approached  for  a  closer  inspection,  and  will 
be  found  arranged  under  the  four  following  distinct  divisions  or 
groups  : 

The  first  class  is  composed  of  all  those  whose  characters,  so 
far  as  they  have  come  down  to  us,  are  proverbial  for  wickedness 
or  folly  ;  whose  talents  and  influence,  while  they  lived,  were 
wholly  perverted  to  evil  ;  and  whose  fearful  examples,  held 
forth  in  the  clear  light  of  Scripture,  still  speak  to  warn  the 
youth  of  both  sexes,  and  of  every  generation,  from  the  paths 
of  transgression.  In  this  dark  group  stand  the  infamous  wife 
of  Potiphar,  the  sorceress  of  Endor,  the  blood-thirsty,  incestuous 
Herodias,  with  her  dancing  daughter,  and  the  notorious  queens, 
Athaliah  and  Jezebel,  whose  whole  royal  authority  was  employed 
in  subverting  the  worship  of  Jehovah.  Here  also,  we  find, though 
partly  concealed  from  view  by  an  overhanging  veil  of  mystery, 
such  characters  as  the  memorable  but  nameless  wife  of  Lot, 
the  ill  fated  wife  of  the  Levite  mentioned  in  the  book  of  Judges, 
the  treacherous  Delilah,  and  the  hypocritical  Sapphira,  wife  of 
Ananias. 

The  second  division  embraces  all  those,  who,  once  proverbial 
for  their  unholy  lives,  were  converted,  and  so  changed  by  the 
grace  of  God,  that  they  afterwards  became  as  illustrious  for 
faith  and  piety,  as  they  had  formerly  been  noted  for  their  de- 
pravity. To  this  group  of  redeemed  ones — brands  plucked 
from  the  burning — belongs  Rahab  of  Jericho,  who  is  one  of 
the  only  two  women  mentioned  in  Paul's  long  Hst  of  faith's  wor- 


212  TYPES  OF  FEMALE  CHARACTER 

thies.  Here  also,  we  behold,  among  others,  the  woman  of  Sa- 
maria,  Mary  Magdalene,  the  damsel  of  Philippi,  and  that  poor 
condemned  outcast  from  the  mercy  of  man  to  whom  Jesus  said, 
"  Go  and  sin  no  more."  These  remarkable  trophies  of  saving 
grace  are,  doubtless,  set  forth  in  the  gallery  of  Scripture  to 
exemplify  the  great  truth,  that  no  life  can  be  so  wretched  and 
hopeless,  no  character  so  lost  to  virtue  and  sunk  so  low  in  sin, 
as  to  be  beyond  the  pale  of  Christian  sympathy,  or  the  power 
of  divine  grace. 

The  third  class  is  the  largest  of  all.  It  is  made  up  of  all  those 
whose  lives  flow  mingling  to  the  end  with  manifold  currents  of  good 
and  evil ;  now  the  one  and  now  the  other  predominating,  and  giv- 
ing color  to  the  stream.  It  is  composed  of  mixed  characters,  in 
which  nature  seems  to  struggle  with  grace  for  the  mastery,  and  in 
which  it  is  difficult  at  times  to  say  whether  sin  or  grace  most 
abounds.  There  is  a  constant  alteruation  of  light  and  shadow. 
We  see  images  of  beauty  amid  broken  fragments,  treasures 
of  heaven  in  earthen  vessels,  jewels  of  immortality  in  caskets 
of  clay.  We  see  the  bright  light  of  the  sun  softened  down  and 
attenuated  to  a  slender  shadowy  outline,  and  reflected  from  the 
dark  edge  of  the  moon — the  graces  of  faith,  liope  and  charity, 
shining  thus  through  manifold  obstacles  of  human  infirmity  and 
sinful  passion.  To  this  group,  which  comes  the  nearer  down  to 
our  own  experience  of  life  only  to  give  us  the  greater  encour- 
agement for  rising  above  earth  and  earthly  scenes,  may  be 
assigned  Eve,  first  in  virtue  and  first  in  transgression  ;  Sarah 
the  devoted  but  impatient  wife  ;  Hagar  the  ungrateful  maid  ; 
Rebekah,  the  partial  mother  ;  Miriam,  the  true  hearted,  but 
ambitious  sister  of  Moses  ;  Martha,  the  energetic,  faithful,  but 
care-burdened  friend  of  Jesus  :  and  Salome,  the  aspiring  mo- 
ther of  Zebedee's  children. 


IN    THE   BIBLE.  213 

The  fourth  class  consists  of  those  in  whom  the  world  has 
found  no  blemish — all  light  without  a  shadow,  all  beauty  with« 
out  a  fault.  Their  characters  appear  before  us  in  unsullied 
purity — not  because  they  had  attained  perfection,  for,  like  all 
others,  they  were  sinful  by  nature,  and  only  partially  sanctified 
by  grace — but  because  the  pen  of  inspiration  has,  purposely, 
given  us  their  virtues,  and  left  their  sins  and  imperfections 
unrecorded.  In  this  radiant  group  may  be  seen  Deborah,  the 
sublime,  heroic  prophetess  and  mother  in  Israel  ;  Hannah,  the 
devout  mother  of  Samuel  ;  Abigail,  the  prudent  wife  of  David; 
Ruth,  the  lovely  Moabitess  ;  and  Esther,  queen  of  queens,  in 
the  Old  Testament  ;  and,  in  the  New,  Anna,  the  prophetess  ; 
Priscilla,  the  Jewess  ;  Elizabeth,  mother  of  John  the  Baptist ; 
Mary,  of  Bethany  ;  Mary,  the  mother  of  our  Lord  ;  Eunice 
and  Lois,  the  mother  and  grandmother  of  Timothy,  and  that 
elect  lady,  who,  of  all  the  hundred,  stands  nearest  to  our  own 
times.  It  was  important  that  we  should  have  some  specimens 
of  woman  at  her  best  estate — pictures  of  the  genial,  sunny- 
side  of  human  nature — and  these  stand  forth  as  the  finest 
models  which  human  nature,  sanctified  by  grace,  has  yet  real- 
ized in  its  advance  towards  perfection.  These  portraits  stand 
out  upon  the  canvas,  painted  with  "  colors  dipped  in  heaven," 
to  give  the  world  assurance  of  what  lovely  woman  may  become 
when  most  adorned  by  grace,  and  of  what  she  will  become 
in  a  world  where  there  is  no  sin.  These  are  like  apples  of  gold 
in  pictures  of  silver. 

As  face  answereth  unto  face  in  water,  and  the  heart  of  man 
to  man,  as  the  dark  mountains  of  the  shore  and  the  bright 
skies  over  head  are  alike  mirrored  upon  the  smooth  and  glassy 
surface  of  the  lake,  even  so  may  every  woman  find  her  own 
exact  image  here  reflected  back,  with  every  form  and  featurci 


214  TYPES  OF  FEMALE  CHARACTER 

every  line   of  beauty   or   deformity,  from   some   one  of   the 
hundred.     Here  may  she  see  herself  in  the  truest  of  all  mirrors, 
drawn  to  the  life  by  an  infallible  pencil,  daguerreotyped  by 
the  clear  sun-light  of  heaven.     And  thus  may  she  learn  how 
to  overcome  or  avoid  the  imperfections  of  nature,  and  to  adorn 
herself  with  every  attraction  of  grace,  and  glory,  and  divinity. 
Women  of  every  rank  in  society,  every  grade  of  intellect,  every 
sphere  of  fortune,  and  every  stamp  of  character,  may  here  find 
a  likeness  and  a  counterpart,  ranging  from  the  wealthy  Shuna- 
mite,  or  the  wise  woman  of  Tekoa,  or  Huldah  in  the  college,  or 
the  queen  of  the  South,  down  to  the  poor  widow  of  Sarepta 
with  her  pot  of  oil,  and  the  little  maid  of  Israel,  captive  in  a 
strange  land.     In  these  tranquil  depths  of  antiquity,  in  these 
pure  and  crystal  waters  of  inspired  truth,  more  than  in  all  the 
classic  fountains  of  Greece  and  Rome — more,  too,  than  in  all 
the  streams  of  modern  poetry  and  fiction — may  our  much-loved 
daughters  behold  the  true  outlines  of  celestial  virtue  and  beauty, 
reflected,  as  from  the  bosom  of  a  mountain-lake,  spread  out 
beneath  o'er-arching  skies,  and  environed  by  hills  and  banks  of 
green.     Here,  on  the  one  side,  in  these  bright  images  of  grace 
and  loveliness,  reflected  from  the  heavens  above,  they  may  dis- 
cern those  lineaments  of  character,  which,  if  imitated,  shall 
make  them  scarcely  less  than  angels.     And  there,  on  the  other, 
in  those  darker  groups,  reflected  from  the  rugged  rocks  on  the 
shore,  may  they  trace  the  lines  of  transgression,  which  need 
only  to  be  followed  to  render  them  little  better  than  fiends  or 
arch-angels  fallen.     And  thus,  from  a  whole  survey,  both  of  the 
evil  and  the  good,  of  things  which  are  lovely  and  things  which 
are  unutterable,  shall  they  come  away,  as  from  a  vision  into  the 
unseen  world,  with  the  grand  lesson  upon  their  hearts,  that, 
"  the  character  of  woman,  like  the  snow,  is  the  fairest  thing  on 


IN    THE    BIBLE.  215 

earth  wlien  fair,  and  the  foulest  when  foul  and  mingled  with 
the  mire." 

IV. — PICTURE    OF    EVE. 

But,  after  this  nasty,  bird's-eye  view  of  the  picture  in  its 
several  groups,  let  us  now  approach  a  little  nearer,  and  take  a 
more  particular  survey  of  some  of  the  individual  characters  that 
stand  foi'th  most  prominently  on  the  scene.  In  so  wide  a  field, 
where  every  object  is  full  of  interest,  but  where  time  will  not 
permit  us  to  gaze  on  all,  nor  linger  long  on  any,  we  shall  feel 
at  liberty  to  select  those  points  which  please  us  most.  As  we 
pass  along  this  crowded  gallery  of  Scripture,  enriched  by  the 
contributions  of  so  many  centuries,  let  us  single  out,  for  a  minu- 
ter view,  those  characters  in  the  several  groups,  which  have 
attained  the  greatest  celebrity,  either  by  the  prominence  of 
their  stations,  the  brightness  of  their  talents,  or  the  loveliness 
of  their  virtues. 

Kext  to  the  virgin  mother  of  our  Saviour — and,  in  some 
respects,  even  before  her — the  most  notable  and  gifted  woman 
of  the  Bible  was  Eve,  daughter  of  God,  wife  of  Adam,  mother 
of  mankind,  and  queen  of  the  new  created  world.  Talk  we  of 
high  nobility,  and  royal  blood,  and  illustrious  descent  ?  Here 
is  one  from  whom  all  the  royal  lines  of  earth  have  sprung — a 
woman  crowned  with  glory  by  the  birth-right  of  an  earlier  ori- 
gin, and  invested  with  sovereignty  by  the  imposition  of  a 
mightier  hand  than  any  other  could  ever  boast.  Talk  we  of 
wisdom,  and  knowledge,  and  genius  ?  Here  is  one  whose  clear 
intellect,  undimmed  by  folly,  unsullied  by  a  sin,  and  unindebted 
to  the  toils  of  pupilage,  was  the  direct  workmanship  of  Him 
who  poured  intelhgence  into  the  mind  of  angel  and  archangel, 


216  TYPES  OF  FEMALE  CHARACTER 

cherubim  and  seraphim.  Talk  we  of  happiness  and  virtue  ? 
Here  is  one,  who,  alone  of  women,  tasted  that  blessedness  which 
springs  from  a  state  of  absolute  perfection  ;  whose  soul,  created 
in  the  image  of  the  righteous  and  holy  God,  was  the  seat  of 
every  human  perfection,  and  whose  person  was  the  centre  of 
attraction  to  everything  that  dwelt  in  Eden.  Talk  we  of  beauty? 
Here  is  one,  with  the  smile  of  heaven  in  her  eye,  the  dew  of 
youth  on  her  cheek,  and  the  sun-light  of  immortality  on  her 
brow  ;  whose  intellectual  and  moral  beauty  of  the  soul,  fit  com- 
panion for  such  a  dwelling-place,  shone  forth  in  every  gesture 
and  movement  of  that  fearfully  and  wonderfully-made  body  which 
was  the  last  and  highest  material  production  of  creative  power. 
The  artists  of  every  generation,  vying  with  each  other  to 
make  tlie  canvas  speak  or  marble  breathe,  and,  in  their  deep- 
est meditations,  calling  up  every  image  of  beauty  from  the  tra- 
ditions of  antiquity,  the  studies  of  the  great  masters,  the  walks 
of  nature,  and  the  realms  of  imagination,  when  they  would  give 
the  world  their  leau  ideal  of  perfection  in  one  finished  model, 
have  essayed  their  utmost  skill,  and  reached  the  chef-d'cEuvre 
of  the  pencil  and  the  chisel,  as  they  have  reproduced  Eve  in 
Paradise.  The  human  mind  can  go  no  farther  in  its  conception 
of  the  beautiful,  than  when  it  pictures  to  itself  the  character 
and  person  of  Eve  on  the  morning  of  her  creation.  Blest  with 
tlie  companionship  of  Adam  and  the  favor  of  God,  enjoying  the 
williog  homage  of  all  animated  nature,  and  sovereignty  over  all 
the  creatures  of  God,  possessing  a  heart  in  harmony  with  all 
the  works  of  God,  and  with  God  himself,  she  was  beautiful  her- 
self, and  she  saw  beauty  in  everything  around  her.  She  tasted 
the  cup  of  perfect,  unalloyed  felicity,  and  she  diffused  joy 
through  all  that  Paradise  over  which  both  God  and  man  had 
delighted  to  crown  her  queen. 


TN    THE    BIBLE.  217 

The  spirit  of  poesy,  too,  in  its  sublimest  song,  has  vied  with 
painting  and  sculpture  in  bodying  forth  its  highest  conception 
of  the  beautiful  ;  and,  in  the  Eve  of  Milton,  we  have  one  of  the 
noblest  contributions  that  human  genius  ever  laid  upon  the 
altar  of  the  Bible.  As  a  commentary  on  the  marriage  relation, 
instituted  in  Eden  when  God  pronounced  the  "  twain  one  flesh," 
as  a  picture  of  perfect  conjugal  affection  and  domestic  bliss,  as 
the  utterance  of  a  heart  alive  to  nature  and  in  deepest  sym- 
pathy with  all  that  was  beautiful  in  the  universe,  what  can 
exceed  these  words  of  Eve's  address  to  Adam  ? 

"  Sweet  is  the  breath  of  morn,  her  rising  sweet 
With  charm  of  earliest  birds  ;  pleasant  the  sun, 
When  first  on  this  dehghtful  land  he  spreads 
His  orient  beams  on  herb,  tree,  fruit,  and  flower, 
Ghstering  with  dew;  fragrant  the  fertile  earth, 
After  soft  showers,  and  sweet  the  coming  on 
Of  grateful  evening  mild  ;  then  silent  night, 
With  this,  her  solemn  bird,  and  this  fair  moon, 
And  the.e,  the  gems  of  heaven,  her  starry  train ; 
But  neither  breath  of  morn,  when  she  ascends 
With  charm  of  earliest  birds,  nor  rising  sun 
On  this  dehghtful  land,  nor  herb,  fruit,  flower. 
Glistering  with  dew,  nor  fragrance  after  showers, 
Nor  grateful  evening  mild,  nor  silent  night. 
With  this,  her  solemn  bird,  nor  walk  by  moon, 
Xor  glittering  starlight,  without  thee  is  sweet." 

But  alas  !  how  soon  was  this  scene  of  joy  and  beauty  changed 
to  woe  and  death,  and  Eden  lost  in  the  waste  wilderness  ! 
How  suddenly  did  this  sun  of  glory  go  down  while  it  was  yet 
day  I  How  was  the  gold  become  dim,  and  the  most  fine  gold 
changed,  and  the  crown  fallen  from  the  head  I  Through  the 
temptation  of  the  Prince  of  Darkness  this  bright  and  happy  one, 

10 


218  TYPES  OF  FEMALE  CHARACTER 

who  had  been  created  only  a  little  lower  than  the  angels,  sinned 
against  God  and  brought  death  into  the  world  with  all  our  woe. 
She,  the  first  woman,  wife  and  mother  of  our  race,  who,  while 
sinless,  had  stood  as  a  model  of  immaculate  perfection  and 
glory,  now  stands  as  the  most  memorable  example  on  the  scroll 
of  time  to  teach  her  daughters  that  it  is  an  evil  and  bitter 
thing  to  sin  against  God. 


V. SARAH    AND    REBEKAH. 

After  Eve,  the  next  most  remarkable  woman  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment— who,  indeed,  is  oftener  referred  to  in  the  New  than  any 
other — is  Sarah,  the  wife  of  Abraham,  and  mother  of  Isaac. 
The  sacred  historian  represents  her  as  a  woman  of  exceeding 
beauty.  "  Behold,"  says  her  husband,  "  thou  art  fair  to  look 
upon,"  and,  wherever  she  went,  she  attracted  the  attention  of 
the  people  and  rulers  of  the  land  as  one  that  was  "  very  fair." 
So  great  was  the  admiration  which  she  won,  even  from  kings 
and  princes,  that,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  Abraham  thought 
his  hfe  endangered  by  her  beauty,  and  endeavored  to  conceal 
the  wife  in  the  sister. 

The  natural  beauty  of  form  and  feature,  like  the  intellectual 
and  moral  beauty  of  the  soul,  is  the  gift  of  God,  and  is  no  more 
to  be  underrated  or  despised  than  other  good  gifts.  Of  course, 
the  mere  material  beauty  of  the  outward  form  cannot  be  com- 
pared, in  value,  with  this  higher  spiritual  beauty  of  the  char- 
acter. But,  as  evincing  the  handiwork  of  the  infinitely  wise 
God,  everything  beautiful  has  a  claim  to  be  admired  and  loved. 
It  is  just  as  proper  to  admire  and  to  prize  beauty  of  person  in 
foman,  as  the  beauty  of  the  rose  and  the  rainbow,  the  flowing 


IN    THE    BIBLE.  219 

river  and  the  waving  grain,  the  blue  mountain  and  the  bending 
sky.  God  has  not  made  the  human  form  so  fair,  and  implanted 
within  us  an  appreciative  sense  of  the  beautiful,  and  then  for- 
bidden us  to  admire  what  is  lovely.  True  ;  female  beauty  is  a 
frail,  fading  flower.  And  so  is  the  beauty  of  the  rose,  and  the 
rainbow,  and  the  summer  landscape.  True,  also,  it  is  a  danger- 
ous gift.  And  so  are  the  gifts  of  intellect  and  education. 
Talents,  angel-bright,  may  be  perverted  and  abused  not  less 
than  material  beauty  ;  and  history  will  show  that  man  has  per 
verted  his  strong  arm  and  his  iron  will  to  bad  purposes  just  as 
often  as  woman  has  abused  that  influence  which  springs  from 
personal  beauty. 

But,  in  the  case  of  Sarah,  outward  personal  beauty  was  found 
in  happy  combination  with  the  nobler  spiritual  beauty  of  a  lofty 
mind  and  a  virtuous  character.  Celebrated  and  admired  in  that 
age  for  her  unusual  share  of  natural  gifts  and  graces,  she  has 
become  still  more  distinguished  through  all  succeeding  ages  as 
an  example  of  deep  womanly  affections — her  faith  in  God, 
her  conjugal  fidelity,  her  maternal  tenderness,  and  her  self-sac- 
rificing devotion  to  her  husband.  By  the  one  she  was  an  object 
of  attraction  to  her  contemporaries  ;  by  the  other  she  has  be- 
come an  object  of  admiration  to  all  who  have  come  after 
her. 

And  though  her  faith  did  sometimes  stagger  at  the  long  de- 
lay of  the  promises,  though  her  generous,  devoted,  high-toned 
spirit  was  sometimes  ruffled  and  over-mastered  by  ingratitude 
and  disobedience,  yet  in  this  she  is  but  an  illustration  of  a  fact 
which  has  occurred  a  thousand  times,  that  the  greatest  charac- 
ters may  bend  under  the  weight  of  the  petty  annoyances  of  daily 
life,  after  standing  erect  under  the  pressure  of  all  the  storms 
and  battles  of  great  occasions.     She  could  not  bear  the  inso- 


220  TYPES  OF  FEMALE  CHARACTER 

lenc€  of  the  ungrateful  bondmaid  and  her  mocking  son,  although 
she  was  equal  to  the  greatest  trials  which  any  woman  could 
be  called  to  endure — even  the  voluntary  surrender  of  her  hus- 
band, in  order  to  accomplish  the  Divine  promises,  and  then  the 
strange  sacrifice  of  the  very  son  of  those  promises.  Adequate, 
as  she  was,  to  all  tliat  a  wife  and  mother  could  be  called  to  do, 
or  suffer  on  a  large  scale,  she  failed  most  signally  in  the  ordin- 
ary duties  of  a  mistress. 

The  name  of  Sarah,  associated  as  it  is  with  the  father  of  the 
faithful,  and  the  heir  of  all  the  promises,  notwithstanding  her 
errors  and  infirmities,  stands  preeminent  among  women  in  that 
"  cloud  of  witnesses,"  whose  acts  of  faith  are  recounted  by  the 
apostle  Paul  to  the  Hebrews,  with  the  high  eulogiara.  That  of 
them  the  world  was  not  worthy.  To  the  character  of  Sarah 
the  apostle  Peter  also  makes  honorable  allusion,  in  exhorting 
the  wives  and  daughters  of  the  church  to  the  cultivation  of  all 
the  womanly  Christian  graces. 

"Let  not  your  adorning  be  the  outward  adorning  of  plaiting 
the  hair,  and  wearing  of  gold,  and  putting  on  of  apparel.  But 
let  it  be  the  hidden  man  of  the  heart,  in  that  which  is  not  cor- 
ruptible, even  the  ornament  of  a  meek  and  quiet  spirit  which 
is,  in  the  sight  of  God,  of  great  price.  For  after  this  manner, 
in  the  old  time,  the  holy  women,  also,  who  trusted  in  God, 
adorned  themselves,  being  in  subjection  unto  their  own  hus- 
bands. Even  as  Sarah  obeyed  Abraham,  calling  him  lord  ; 
whose  daughters  ye  are  as  long  as  ye  do  well  and  are  not  afraid 
with  any  amazement." 

Now  we  are  sometimes  afraid,  and  with  no  little  amazement, 
that  many  of  our  fair  country-women  have  quite  forgotten  this 
exhortation.  In  these  days  of  outward  adorning  and  elegant 
accomplishments,  of  many  schools,  and  many  books  of  new  cos- 


IN    TUE    BIBLE.  221 

tumes  and  woman's  rights,  of  social  reforms  and  conventions  to 
change  the  ordinances  of  God,  we  very  much  fear  that  many  of 
our  fine  ladies  would  think  it  no  honor  to  be  called  the  daugh* 
ters  of  Sarah.  Of  what  authority  can  either  Paul  or  Sarah  be 
to  those,  whose  highest  conception  of  the  coming  millennium 
seems  to  be,  that  it  will  be  a  time,  now  very  near,  when  all  pa- 
rents shall  be  in  subjection  to  their  children,  and  all  husbands 
to  their  wives  ?  In  such  lialcyon  days,  "  of  bliss  surpassing 
fable,"  when  juvenility  shall  reign  without  a  rival,  and  the  world 
have  its  second  boyhood  and  girlhood,  it  may  be  questioned 
whether  your  modern  fashionable  lady,  deeply  read  in  novels, 
deeply  learned  in  etiquette,  deeply  dyed  in  social  philosophy, 
would  not  wholly  repudiate  the  gentility  and  ladyship  of  Sarah 
and  the  other  women  of  the  olden  time  who  communed  with 
God,  held  converse  with  the  angels,  and  had  their  daily  walk 
with  the  nobles  of  the  earth. 

But  to  proceed.  One  of  the  most  interesting  and  lovely  charac- 
ters amongst  all  these  ladies  of  the  olden  time  is  that  of  Rebekah, 
the  youthful  bride,  the  matronly  wife,  the  aged  companion  of 
Isaac.  Like  Sarah,  she  had  her  faults,  but  they  are  lost  in  the 
superior  lustre  of  her  virtues.  It  will  suffice,  at  present,  to  re- 
fer to  a  single  passage  in  her  history.  'Tis  one  of  interest  to  all 
— of  especial  interest  to  all  young  gentlemen  and  ladies  who 
may  need  counsel  touching  one  of  the  most  important  transac- 
tions of  life.  It  is  her  youthful  marriage  with  Isaac,  the  man  of 
her  choice,  and  the  man  too  of  her  parents'  choice.  In  the  ex- 
ample of  Isaac  and  Rebekah — one  of  the  best,  indeed,  in  all 
the  Bible  as  it  regards  married  life — we  find  this  sacred  institu- 
tion entered  upon,  and  observed  through  a  long  life,  precisely 
as  God  ordained  it  in  Eden,  and  as  Jesus  Christ  re-ordained  it 
in  the  New  Testament  when  he  said  .     "  For  this  cause  shall  a 


222  TYPES  OF  FEMALE  CHARACTER 

man  forsake  his  father  and  his  mother  and  cleave  unto  his  wifC; 
and  they  two  shall  be  one  flesh." 

The  times  are  changed,  and  the  customs  of  society  changed, 
but  this  first  detailed  account  of  marriage  is  not  without  its  in- 
terest and  intruction  for  the  youth  of  our  day.  If  such  a  mis- 
sion," says  Dr.  Kitto,  speaking  of  Abraham's  servant,  "  were  at 
all  possible  under  our  own  system  of  manners,  it  would  certainly 
not  be  among  the  girls  gathered  round  the  village  pump  that 
the  messenger  would  expect  to  find  a  match,  in  all  respects  suit- 
able, for  the  son  of  his  wealthy  and  well-born  master.  But  in 
that  age,  when,  as  now  in  the  same  countries,  the  young  females 
of  the  most  honorable  families  discharge  the  commonest  domes- 
tic offices,  and  to  whom  the  fetching  of  water  from  the  well  out- 
side the  town  was  a  service  in  whicli  peculiar  pleasure  was 
taken,  from  its  enabling  them  to  meet  their  companions,  the  ser- 
vant knew  that  the  young  females  whom  he  might  shortly  ex- 
pect to  see  at  that  place,  must  include  the  very  class  from  which 
his  choice  was  to  be  made." 

Now,  you  may  be  somewhat  acquainted  with  the  writings  of 
classical  antiquity  ;  you  may  be  more  or  less  familliar  with  the 
pages  of  our  modern  poetry  and  fiction  ;  you  may  have  read 
much  of  history,  biography,  and  the  drama  ;  but  it  may  be 
safely  affirmed,  that  in  all  your  reading,  whether  ancient  or 
modern,  sacred  or  profane,  you  cannot  find  anything  of  equal 
compass  on  the  subject  of  marriage,  so  interesting,  so  instructive, 
and  so  beautiful,  as  that  long  twenty-fourth  chapter  of  Genesis 
which  tells  us  all  we  need  to  know  about  the  wedding  of  Isaac 
and  Rebekah.  If  you  will  read  it  carefully  again  you  may  no- 
tice four  circumstances  that  render  it,  notwithstanding  its  anti- 
quity, a  manual  of  instruction  to  every  young  man  and 
woman,  in   choosing  a  companion  for  life,  as  much  better  as  it 


IN   THE    BIBLE.  223 

is  shorter  than  Hannah  More's  "  Coelebs  in  Search  of  a  ^V^ife," 
or  Goldsmith's  play  '*  She  Stoops  to  Conquer,"  or  any  other  un- 
inspired production. 

First,  it  was  a  marriage,  literally  and  truly,  in  accordance 
with  the  will  of  the  Lord.  This  was  regarded  as  an  essential 
point  alike  by  the  young  people  and  their  parents  on  both  sides. 
Every  step,  from  the  beginning  to  its  consummation,  by  all  the 
parties  engaged  in  it,  even  to  the  servant  who  went  for  Rebekah, 
was  taken  in  reliance  upon  Divine  Providence,  and  with  prayer 
for  the  blessing  of  heaven  upon  the  nuptials.  The  whole  matter 
had  been  committed  to  the  Lord's  direction,  as  every  marriage 
ought  to  be. 

Secondly,  it  was  free,  cordial  and  unrestrained  on  Rebekah's 
part  as  well  as  on  the  part  of  Isaac,  and  on  the  part  of  their 
parents.  The  choice  of  her  own  heart  was  consulted  and 
respected  as  the  ultimate  authority.  There  was  no  compulsion 
by  parental  dictation.  The  parents  decided  nothing,  and  gave 
the  messenger  no  answer  till  her  own  decision  had  been  made, 
"Wilt  thou  go  with  this  man?"  And  she  said,  "  I  will  go.'* 
Prompt,  courag3oas  and  baautifal  reply  !  But  had  she  said 
"  No,"  there  the  matter  would  have  ended.  They  would  not 
have  compelled  her  to  go.  Her  negative  would  have  stopped 
all  further  proceedings. 

Thirdly,  it  was  no  wayward,  foolish,  and  ungrateful  runaway 
match.  Rebekah  decided  for  herself,  but  decided  in  accordance 
with  the  wishes  of  her  parents.  Had  they  said  "  No,"  she 
would  not  have  gone.  Their  negative,  like  hers,  would  have 
stopped  all  farther  proceedings.  She  would  not  have  married  at 
all  rather  than  marry  in  opposition  to  the  wishes  of  her  parents. 
Thus  to  the  parent  and  the  child,  belonged  a  rightful  veto  as 
God  and  nature  intended  it  should  belong  in  every  ease  of  mar- 
riage.    Do  you  ask,  What  is  a  young  lady  to  do,  when  her  pa- 


224  TYPES   OF   FEMALE   CHARACTEK 

rents  oppose  her  marriage  in  a  particular  case.  We  answer,  Do 
nothing  ;  but  remain  as  she  is.  Do  not  marry  at  all  rather  than 
marry  under  such  circumstances.  There  had  better  be  no  mar- 
riage, while  the  world  stands,  than  marriage  in  defiance  of  pa- 
rental authority.  It  is  a  sinful  breach  of  the  great  law  of  na- 
ture and  of  heaven,  when  a  parent  compels  his  daughter  to 
marry  against  her  own  heart's  choice  ;  and  it  is  no  less  so  for 
a  daughter  to  marry  in  defiance  of  the  will  of  her  parents.  The 
young  woman,  who  is  capable  of  bringing  upon  the  once  happy 
home  of  her  childhood,  all  that  desolation  which  is  implied  in 
an  elopement,  and  of  inflicting  such  unmitigated  cruelty  upon 
the  mother  to  whom  she  owes  the  highest  of  all  earthly  obliga- 
tions, is,  to  say  the  very  least,  unfit  herself  to  be  a  wife  and 
mother  ;  and  the  world  would  be  no  loser  if  she  should  never 
marry.  We  speak  with  emphasis  upon  the  subject  ;  because 
anything,  which,  in  the  name  of  marriage,  thus  tramples  upon 
the  sacredness  of  home,  and  the  rights  of  j^arcnts,  however  it 
may  be  tolerated  in  our  fashionable  society,  we  can  only  regard 
as  an. evil  and  an  outrage,  as  abhorrent  to  nature  as  it  is  contrary 
to  the  law  of  God. 

Fourthly,  the  courtship  of  Isaac  and  Rebekah,  unlike  many 
in  our  day,  was  one  of  perfect  candor,  of  straight-forward, 
business-like  simphcity,  and  of  admirable  delicacy  and  fair-deal- 
ing on  all  sides.  There  was  no  double-dealing,  no  coquetry,  no 
unwomanly  vacillation  ;  no  unmanly  breach  of  contract,  no 
saying  one  thing  and  meaning  another  ;  no  female  diplomacy, 
no  modern  marioeuvering.  The  young  and  lovely  Rebekah  shines 
forth  as  the  model  of  artless  innocence,  of  open-hearted  truth- 
fulness, of  womanly  decision,  of  lady-like  delicacy,  and  of 
devoted  piety  and  trust  in  God.  And  as  for  Isaac,  walking 
afield  at  eventide,  to  meditate,  holding  quiet  communion  with 
nature,  and  lifting  up  his  eyes,  at  last,  to  behold  the  camels 


m    THE    BIBLE.  225 

coming,  and  Kebekah  with  them,  how  can  we  think  otherwise 
of  him  than  as  the  most  blessed  and  happy  man  of  his  day  ?  * 
From  a  review  of  the  whole  case,  we  think  there  is  mnch  to 
admire  in  this  ancient  marriage  ;  and  there  are  many  lessons 
which  our  much-loved  daughters  might  learn  from  its  natural 
simplicity  and  beauty.  There  is  more  real  refinement,  and 
more  of  the  true  dignity  and  glory  of  woman  in  such  a  marriage 
as  Rebekah's  than  in  all  the  clandestine  elopements,  and  roman- 
tic adventures,  and  sentimental  wooiugs  by  moanshine,  and 
mercenary  bargainings  for  wealth  and  ambition,  that  our  nov- 
elists have  ever  depicted,  or  our  modern  belles  ever  sighed  for. 


VI. CHARACTER    OF    DEBORAH. 

But  let  us  turn  now  to  a  type  of  female  character  altogether 
different  from  any  we  have  yet  contemplated  ;  let  us  turn  from 
tlie  private  to  the  public — from  the  tranquil  scenes  of  domestic 
life  to  the  stirring  incidents  of  the  political.  It  is  upon  an 
inspired  prophetess  of  the  Lord  that  we  are  now  to  look. 

Seven  of  the  hundred  women  of  the  Bible  bear  the  title  of 
prophetess,  not  to  mention  the  four  virgin  daughters  of  Philip, 
the  Evangelist.  These  are,  the  good  Anna,  of  the  gospel  his- 
tory, and  the  wicked,  self-styled  prophetess,  Jezebel,  of  the 
Book  of  Revelation  ;  and,  in  the  Old  Testament,  the  wife  of 
Isaiah,  the  Noadiah  of  Nehemiah,  Huldah  of  Jerusalem,  Mh'i- 
am  the  sister  of  Moses,  and  Deborah.  Let  us  consider,  for  a 
moment,  the  last  of  these,  as  being  the  most  remarkable  and 
the  most  gifted  of  the  prophetic  group,  and  possessing,  too,  as 
much  of  the  heroic  as  the  prophetic  spirit. 

She  was  a  wife  and  a  mother  in  Israel  ;  and,  nc  doubt,  faith- 

10* 


226  TYPES  OF  FEMALE  CHARACTER 

fully  discharged  all  those  duties  which  constitute  the  glory  of 
woman.  But,  from  the  brief  record  of  her  public  acts  and  the 
success  of  her  daring  achievements,  as  well  as  from  her  sublime 
poetry,  it  is  manifest  that  she  possessed,  in  rare  combination, 
many  of  the  highest  intellectual  and  moral  endowments.  She 
united,  at  once,  the  genius  of  the  poet,  the  administrative 
ability  of  the  civil  ruler,  the  wisdom  of  the  judge,  the  courage 
of  the  military  leader,  and  that  high-toned  patriotic  enthusiasm, 
which  made  her  the  deliverer  of  her  country  when  there  was 
not  a  man,  in  all  the  twelve  tribes,  for  the  space  of  twenty  years, 
who  had  dared  to  strike  a  blow  for  its  deliverance.  Raised  up 
and  inspired  of  God  for  the  occasion,  called  first  to  be  the  civil 
head  of  the  nation  because  there  was  no  one  else  competent  to 
the  place,  and  then,  most  reluctantly,  called  to  take  the  field  at 
the  head  of  its  armies,  when  all  hearts  were  quailing  for  fear, 
though  }  3rself  undaunted  before  the  multitudinous  array  of 
Israel's  proud  invaders,  this  wife  of  Lapidoth  and  mother  in 
Israel  *vent  forth  from  her  quiet  home  beneath  the  palm-tree  ; 
and,  infiiiing  her  own  indomitable  spirit  into  Barak  and  her 
countryrxen,  turned  not  back  till  every  foeman  had  been  driven 
from  the  land,  and  in  her  sublime  words,  "  the  stars  in  their 
courses  h;  A  fought  against  Sisera."  Israel  triumphed  gloriously. 
But  it  wa  a  greater  triumph  for  woman  than  for  Israel.  From 
the  men  o.  that  generation,  and  for  her  sex,  she  won  a  triumph 
which  sho:  Id  stand  as  a  memorial  in  all  generations  to  come. 
If  there  wo'e  no  other  proof  on  record  of  the  strength  of  female 
character,  and  the  capacity  of  female  intellect,  this  signal  victory 
and  triumphal  song  of  Deborah  would  remain  as  a  perpetual 
monument  to  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  glory  of  woman. 

Many  subsequent  triumphs   have  been  won  by  woman  in 
almost  every  field  of  human  action.     But  to  Deborah  belongs 


IN    THE    BIBLE.  25? 

the  distinction  of  being  the  pioneer  of  her  sex  in  this  depart- 
ment of  greatness.  The  true  sphere  of  woman,  in  which  Provi- 
dence intended,  as  a  general  rule,  that  she  should  win  her 
highest  glory,  is  not  the  battle-field,  nor  the  cabinet  of  state, 
nor  the  hall  of  legislation,  nor,  indeed,  the  throne  of  empire. 
But  there  are  examples  enough  in  history,  like  that  of  Deborah, 
to  show  that  when  occasion  calls  for  it — which,  indeed,  is  not 
often — woman  is  capable  of  the  very  greatest  achievements  in 
every  sphere  of  human  enterprise,  in  every  field  of  intellectual 
and  moral  efi'ort.  The  commanding  influence  of  Deborah,  the 
poetic  genius  of  Sappho,  the  martial  spirit  of  Zenobia,  the 
administrative  ability  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  the  statesman-like 
character  of  Margaret  of  Denmark,  the  heroic  courage  and 
achievements  of  Joan  of  Arc,  Flora  Macdonald,  and  Grace  Dar- 
ling, the  versatile  talents  of  Madame  De  Stael,  the  classical 
learning  of  Madame  Dacier,  the  scientific  attainments  of  Mrs. 
Somerville,  not  to  mention  a  hundred  others,  stand  not  only  as 
an  evidence  of  what  woman  has  done  in  all  the  walks  which  man 
has  claimed  as  his  own,  but  as  an  argument  for  what  she  could 
do,  if  all  those  walks  were  as  open  to  her  as  they  are  to  him. 
Oh,  yes  ;  there  can  be  no  doubt  at  all  that  woman  has  the 
ability,  or,  what  amounts  to  the  same,  could  very  soon  acquire 
the  ability,  to  manage  the  world,  and  manage  it  very  well  too, 
if  man  would  resign  the  sceptre  and  change  places  with  her. 
But  then  there  can  be  no  doubt  at  all,  that  she  would  be  the 
greatest  loser  by  the  change  ;  nay,  she  would  lose  infinitely 
more  than  she  or  the  world  could  gain  by  such  a  bargain. 

Now,  it  adds  a  peculiar  lustre  to  the  character  of  Deborah, 
that  she  did  not  seek  to  sink  the  woman  in  the  warrior.  She 
could  play  the  heroine  on  a  grand  scale,  when  occasion  called 
for  it,  in  the  deliverance  of  her  country.     But  she  undertook  it 


228  TYPKS    OF    FiQIALE    CHAKACTKS 

reluctantly,  feeling  that  it  was  not  her  congenial  element.  The 
victory  she  won  was  worthy  of  the  cause  she  had  espoused. 
Her  triumphal  hymn  was  worthy  of  the  victory.  And  all  were 
worthy  of  such  a  woman,  wife,  and  mother.  With  equal  truth 
and  beauty  it  has  been  remarked  of  her,  by  the  accomplished 
author  of  "Woman's  Record,"  that,  ''she  did  not  assume  for 
herself  the  title  of  Judge,  Heroine,  or  Prophetess,  though  she 
was  all  these,  but  she  chose  the  tender  name  of  Mother  as  the 
highest  style  of  woman  ;  and  described  the  utter  misery  of  her 
people  as  arousing  her  to  assume  the  high  station  of  a  patriot 
and  leader.  It  was  not  ambition,  but  love,  that  stirred  her 
noble  spirit,  and  nerved  her  for  the  duties  of  government.  She 
is  a  remarkable  exemplification  of  the  spiritual  influence  woman 
has  wielded  for  the  benefit  of  humanity  when  the  energies  of 
man  seemed  entirely  overcome." 

Her  song  of  victory,  which  fills  up  the  fifth  chapter  of  the 
Book  of  Judges,  is  one  of  the  earliest  as  it  is  one  of  the  sublim- 
est  poems  in  the  world.  It  breathes,  in  every  line,  with  patri- 
otic ardor,  with  lofty  enthusiasm,  with  heroic  courage,  with 
thanksgiving  to  God,  all  poured  forth  from  a  heart  glowing 
with  poetic  beauty,  and  swelling  with  the  afflatus  of  prophetic 
inspiration.  Nobly  and  truly  has  it  been  characterized  by  a 
late  writer  in  the  following  words  :  "  The  battle  is  over  :  and 
now  comes  the  great  song  of  praise  and  triumph — one  of  the 
sublimest  pages  of  poetry  within  the  compass  of  the  Scriptures. 
It  is  the  only  war-song  in  existence  that  has  the  Divine  mingled 
with  the  human,  the  very  deepest  and  sweetest  spirit  of  grateful 
piety  with  the  loftiest  temper  of  patriotism  and  national  enthusi- 
asm. Its  sublime  apostrophes,  its  bursts  of  feeling,  its  rapid 
and  startling  changes  of  thought,  its  lightning-like  descriptions, 
its  comprehensive  historic  allusions,  its  questionings,  its  solemn 


IN    THE    BIBLE. 

adjurations,  its  grandeur  of  faith  in  God,  and  gratitude  to  him, 
all  make  it  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  compositions  in  the 
Bible.  If  we  should  consider  it  an  effort  of  human  genius,  it 
would  be  unrivalled  ;  there  is  nothing  to  be  compared  with  it 
in  the  world  of  literature." 


VII. ESTHER   AND   RUTH. 

But,  from  the  heroic  and  warlike,  turn  now  and  look  npon 
quite  a  different  picture.  Look  at  Esther  in  her  majesty — after 
Eve  the  most  queenly  woman  of  all  the  hundred  women  of  the 
Bible — once  Hadassah,  the  poor  orphan  girl  of  the  Jewish  cap- 
rivity,  now  the  successor  of  Yashti,  queen  of  an  empire  extend- 
ing from  India  to  Ethiopia.  When  did  imagination  ever  dream 
of  a  greater  and  stranger  change  of  fortune  than  hers  ;  from 
the  orphan  to  the  queen,  from  the  prisoner  of  the  captivity  to 
the  mistress  of  the  palace,  from  the  poor  exile  to  the  throne  of 
the  greatest  empire  in  the  world  ?  She  was  beautiful  ;  and 
that  had  been  the  stepping  stone  to  her  exaltation.  But  her  per- 
sonal beauty  was  the  very  least  of  her  charms.  There  was  a 
higher  spiritual  beauty,  a  strength  of  character,  which  was  to 
all  her  outward  graces,  more,  even,  than  the  fine-wrought  tex- 
ture is  to  the  polish  of  the  marble.  Behold  her,  at  the  zenith 
of  her  power,  holding  fast  her  religion  in  the  midst  of  all  the 
blandishments  and  luxuries  of  an  oriental  court,  fasting  and 
praying  for  her  down-trodden  countrymen.  See  her  after  three 
days  and  nights  of  anxious  communion  with  her  God,  out  of 
the  love  she  bears  her  kindred  and  the  institutions  of  her 
fathers,  making  up  her  mind  to  the  great  issue  ;  and  then,  with 
a  decision  and  self-sacrifice  worthy  of  a  martyr  venturing  her 


230  TYPES    OF    FEMALE   CHARACTER 

life,  her  all,  for  the  good  of  her  people,  with  the  memorable 
answer,  "  If  I  perish,  I  perish." 

There  was  decision  of  character  for  jou.  There  was  courage 
of  the  highest  order.  There  was  the  sublimity  of  true  moral 
greatness,  worthy  of  the  Jewess  and  worthy  of  the  woman. 
There,  beneath  that  form  of  unusual  loveUness,  dwelt  a  soul  of 
extraordinary  attributes — a  spirit  of  patriotism  and  religious 
principle  that  could  look  danger  and  death  in  the  face,  and 
calmly  risk  all  it  had  on  earth  for  tlie  common  good  of  the 
nation.  But  the  victim  was  not  needed.  The  intention  was 
accepted  for  the  deed.  She  had  evinced  a  heroic  confidence  in 
God  worthy  of  a  daughter  of  Abraham  ;  and,  by  it,  she  saved 
the  seed  of  Abraham  from  extermination.  We  know  not  a 
finer  specimen  of  female  biography,  nor  a  loftier  example  of 
piety  holding  fast  its  profession  through  all  temptation,  nor  a 
more  delightful  illustration  of  the  special,  over-ruling  Provi- 
dence of  God,  than  is  exhibited  in  the  life  and  fortunes  of  this 
beautiful  orphan  girl,  Hadassah  ;  this  majestic,  self-sacrificing 
Queen  Esther.  Risking  all,  willing  to  lose  all  for  others,  she 
gained  all,  both  for  others  and  herself. 

Let  us  leave,  for  a  moment,  the  palaces  of  the  great  and  the 
noble,  whilst  we  turn  back  to  look  upon  a  lowly  scene  of  domes- 
tic, rural  life.  And  what  picture  of  youthful  piety  and  love  is 
this  that  stands  so  invitingly  before  us  now  ?  'Tis  Ruth,  the 
native  of  a  heathen  land,  the  daughter  of  an  idolatrous  race, 
now  converted  to  the  faith  of  Israel.  'Tis  Ruth,  cleaving  to 
Naomi  with  a  filial  and  a  religious  devotion,  which  says  : 
''Entreat  me  not  to  leave  thee,  or  to  return  from  following 
after  thee  ;  for  whither  thou  goest  I  will  go,  and  where  thou 
lodgest  I  will  lodge  ;  thy  people  shall  be  my  people,  and  thy 
God  my  God     Where  thou  diest  I  will  die,  and  there  will  I  be 


IN    THE   BIBLE.  2Sl 

buried  ;  the  Lord  do  so  to  me,  if  aught  but  death  part  thee  and 
me."  'Tis  the  lovely  and  virtuous  Ruth,  gleaning  in  the  harvest- 
fields  of  Bethlehem,  becoming  the  lawful  wife  of  Boaz,  and  ere 
long  a  mother  in  Israel — a  mother  of  that  royal  race  from 
which  should  spring  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  himself  to  be  born 
in  that  very  Bethlehem  where  Ruth  followed  the  reapers,  and  to 
be  born  of  a  damsel  as  humble  as  herself. 

In  the  beautiful  and  instructive  story  of  Ruth,  her  choice  to 
go  with  Naomi  is,  perhaps,  the  most  interesting  passage.  It 
was  evidently  the  turning  point  in  the  destiny  of  the  young  and 
widowed  Moabitess.  It  exhibits  her  feelings  in  deciding  an 
alternative,  on  which  depended  all  her  fortunes  for  this  world, 
and,  it  may  be,  her  soul's  salvation  in  the  world  to  come.  It 
represents  her  in  the  act  of  meeting  and  settling  the  greatest 
issue  of  her  life — the  question,  whether  she  would  stay  at  home 
and  live  on  with  her  kindred  in  idolatry,  or  give  up  all  for  the 
people  and  the  service  of  the  only  living  and  true  God. 

She  chose  the  latter.  We  know  not  how  long  and  painful 
the  struggle  may  have  been  which  brought  her  to  that  decision. 
We  only  know  her  choice  as  the  opposite  of  her  sister-in-law's  ; 
and  there  was  no  motive  short  of  religion  adequate  to  such  a 
choice.  Certainly  there  was  nothing  in  the  external  fortunes 
of  Naomi  to  captivate  her  heart.  Her  language,  however,  is 
more  than  that  of  mere  human  friendship.  It  reveals  the 
intense  energy  and  decision  of  a  soul,  voluntarily  relinquishing 
all  the  ties  of  country  and  kindred,  to  choose  a  portion  in  the 
God  of  Israel  and  an  humble  lot  among  his  people.  To  all 
the  difficulties  and  hardships  suggested  by  Naomi,  she  replied 
with  the  resolute  devotion  and  ardor  of  one  whose  heart  was 
fixed,  "  Entreat  me  not  to  leave  thee."  All  the  considerations 
of  personal  interest  and  all  the  prospects  of  wordly  good  were 


232  TYPES    OF   FEMALE   CliARACTER 

against  the  choice  she  made.  These  had  already  prevailed 
with  Orpah  to  decide  the  other  way.  Ruth's  language  shows 
that  with  her  the  main  element  and  motive  of  the  choice  was 
religion.  She  decided  to  go  with  Naomi  to  a  strange  land, 
rather  than  return  to  her  mother's  house  in  her  own  land, 
because  Naomi's  people  were  God's  people,  and  Naomi's  God 
the  true  God. 

It  was  a  noble  choice,  most  touchingly  expressed,  and  most 
faithfully  carried  out.  Most  cheerfully  she  encountered  all  the 
hardships  of  a  foreign  land  and  all  the  privations  of  extreme 
poverty  for  the  sake  of  the  true  religion.  And  she  did  not  lose 
her  reward. 

She  verified  thus  early  the  saying,  which  was  long  afterwards 
written,  "  Godliness  hath  tlie  promise  of  the  life  that  now  is, 
and  of  that  which  is  to  come." 

As  she  toiled  there  iii  the  fields  of  Boaz  for  her  daily  bread, 
an  unknown  stranger  among  the  reapers,  how  far  from  any  of 
ber  youthful  imaginings  and  day-dreams  of  the  future,  must 
have  been  the  thought,  that  the  blood  which  then  coursed 
through  her  veins,  and  mantled  on  her  cheek,  would  descend 
and  flow  through  many  of  the  most  renowned  personages  of  the 
world's  history — through  David  and  Solomon,  Hezekiah  and 
Josiah,  Mary  and  Jesus.  Her  history,  wonderful  in  the  lowli- 
ness of  its  beginning,  and  wonderful  in  the  grandeur  of  its 
termination  in  the  great  Messiah,  is,  indeed,  a  striking  illustra- 
tion of  the  fact  that  truth  is  often  stranger  and  more  beautiful 
than  fiction.  "Her  example,"  says  Mrs.  Hale,  "shows  what 
woman  can  do,  if  she  is  true  to  the  best  impulses  of  her  nature, 
and  faithfully  works  in  her  mission,  and  waits  the  appointed 
time."  Her  life,  like  that  of  Estlier,  so  humble  iu  its  origin 
and  so  illustrious   in  its  results,  is  a  lesson  to  teach  us  how, 


IN    THE    BIBLE.  233 

in  the  Providence  of  God,  great  effects  flow  from  little 
causes. 

Her  exaltation  may  call  to  mind  many  similar,  though  less 
remarkable  cases,  in  modern  history.  Take  one  example. 
Early  in  the  seventeenth  century,  a  poor  English  girl  went  up 
from  the  country  to  London  to  work  her  way  through  the  world 
as  a  servant.  By  industry,  economy,  and  an  early  marriage,  she 
was  soon  placed  above  want.  Her  first  husband  dyins",  she 
then  married  Edward  Hyde,  a  young  lawyer,  who  became  Earl 
of  Clarendon,  and  Lord  High  Chancellor  of  the  State.  Her 
daughter  married  the  Duke  of  York,  who  became  James  IL  of 
England  ;  and  her  two  grand-daughters,  Mary  and  Anne,  be- 
came, successively,  queens  of  Great  Britain — two,  indeed,  of 
the  best  of  all  the  English  sovereigns.  And  thus  was  she,  like 
Ruth  and  Esther,  raised  up  to  become  a  fountain-head  of  influ- 
ence, which  should  be  extended  over  one  of  the  greatest  king- 
doms of  the  earth  and  perpetuated  to  the  end  of  time. 

The  Bible  does  not  tell  us  that  Ruth  was  fair.  Not  a  word 
is  said  about  her  personal  appearance.  And  yet  there  is  some- 
thing in  the  whole  narrative  which  seems  naturally  to  suggest 
the  idea  that  she  was  beautiful.  Every  reader  gets  that 
impression,  instinctively,  unconsciously;  he  cannot  tell  why,  or 
from  what.  Everything  that  has  been  uttered  about  her,  every 
picture  that  has  been  drawn,  seems  to  take  that  point  for 
granted.  The  beauty  of  her  character  seems  to  throw  its  soft, 
sunny  reflection  over  her  whole  person.  She  is,  to  every  ima- 
gination, a  poetic  image — an  impersonation  of  the  beautiful  not 
less  than  a  historic  character.  We  love  to  think  of  her  in  that 
light,  as  we  do  of  Eve,  and  the  very  silence  of  the  Bible  seems 
to  favor  the  illusion.  As  we  fancy  how  she  looked  in  the  early 
dawn,  threading  her  way  with  elastic  steps  through  the  ripen- 


234:  TYPES    OF    FEMALE    CHARACTER 

ing  wheat-fields  of  Boaz,  we  think  of  her  as  one  who  might 
have  prompted  the  lines  of  Scott : 

"Ne'er  did  Grecian  chisel  trace 
A  nymph,  a  naiad,  or  a  grace 
Of  finer  form  or  lovelier  face." 

Ruth  is,  indeed,  in  some  respects,  the  gem  of  the  whole  gal- 
lery of  Scripture  portraits.  And,  as  we  read  her  beautiful 
poetic  story,  we  almost  wonder  that  her  great-grandson,  the 
sweet  Psalmist  of  Israel,  did  not  sometimes  tune  his  harp  to 
weave  a  chaplet  of  song  around  the  name  and  memory  of  such 
a  mother.  But,  for  aught  we  know,  he  did.  Amongst  the 
many  tributes  which  the  modern  muse  has  paid  to  her  loveliness 
and  virtue,  we  may  select,  as  an  appropriate  close  for  our  brief 
sketch,  the  following  lines  from  Hood,  which,  though  somewhat 
fanciful,  are  certainly  very  beautiful  ; 

'*  She  stood  breast  high  amid  the  corn, 
Clasped  by  the  golden  hght  of  morn, 
Like  the  sweet-heart  of  the  sun, 
Who  many  a  golden  kiss  had  won. 
On  her  cheeks  an  autumn  plush 
Deeply  ripened— such  a  blush 
In  the  midst  of  brown  was  born, 
Like  red  poppies  grown  with  corn. 
Round  her  eyes  her  tresses  fell — 
Which  were  blackest  none  could  tell; 
But  long  lashes  veiled  a  light, 
That  had  else  been  all  too  bright. 
And  her  hat,  with  shady  brim, 
Made  her  tressy  forehead  dim  ; 
There  she  stood  amid  the  stocks, 
Praising  God  with  sweetest  looks. 


IN    THE    BIBLE.  235 

Sure,  I  said,  heaven  did  not  mean, 
AVhere  I  reap  thou  shouldst  but  glean; 
Lay  thy  sheaf  adowu  and  come 
Share  my  harvest  and  my  home." 


VIII. JEZEBEL    AND    ATHALIAH. 

By  way  of  contrast,  let  us  turn,  for  a  moment,  from  these 
virtuous  and  holy  women,  whose  names  distinguish  two  of  the 
most  beautiful  books  of  Scripture,  to  gaze  upon  two  others  of 
a  totally  different  character.  In  Jezebel  and  Athaliah,  the 
mother  and  daughter,  one  the  queen  of  Israel  and  the  other  of 
Judah,  one  the  wife  and  the  other  the  daughter  of  Ahab,  we 
behold  a  double  incarnation  of  wickedness.  Companions  alike 
in  their  heathen  idolatry,  in  their  inordinate  ambition,  in  their 
unrelenting  cruelty  and  blood-thirstiness,  in  their  successful 
usurpation  of  royal  authority,  and  in  their  mad  rebellion  against 
Jehovah,  they  were  associates  in  the  awful  doom,  which,  at 
last,  -overtook  them.  The  crimes  of  Athaliah,  in  the  destruc- 
tion of  her  grandchildren,  were  even  more  aggravated  than 
those  of  Jezebel.  But  to  Jezebel,  as  the  mother,  belongs  the 
greater  share  of  the  responsibility  and  the  guilt.  And  accord- 
ingly, her  name,  like  that  of  Judas  and  of  Cain,  has  descended 
to  all  generations  as  a  proverb  and  term  of  reproach.  The 
vocabulary  of  the  world  cannot  pronounce  a  more  disgraceful 
stigma  on  a  woman  than  to  call  her  Jezebel.  Xo  child  is  ever 
named  for  Jezebel. 

It  is  a  mournful  but  significant  fact,  that  the  darkest, 
bloodiest  period,  in  the  whole  history  of  the  Jewish  nation,  is 
that  in  which  these  two  women  of  iron,  seizing  the  reins  of 
power,  exercised  absolute  dominion  over  both  the  court  and  the 


236  TYPES  OF  FEMALE  CHAEACTEK. 

people  of  Israel  and  Judah.  The  one,  even  while  the  wife  of 
Ahah,  by  her  superior  talents  and  her  iron  will,  was  virtually 
sole  sovereign  of  Israel.  The  other,  the  widow. of  Jehoram, 
with  a  heart  of  adamant,  killed  her  grandchildren  in  their  infancy 
that  she  might  reign  without  a  rival,  queen  of  Judah.  And 
whilst  their  influence  and  their  lives  lasted,  idolatry,  and  crime, 
and  every  abomination  filled  the  land.  The  Bible  has,  in  one 
short  sentence,  left  us  a  standing  monument  of  the  infamy  of 
Athaliah.  Speaking  of  her  son,  Ahaziah,  it  says  :  "  His  mother 
was  his  counsellor  to  do  wickedly."  Alas  !  how  many  public 
crimes  and  calamities,  in  every  age,  are  explained  by  that 
sentence. 

The  deep  and  fearful  significance  of  this  mournful  fact  lies 
in  this — that  when  woman,  fired  with  the  demon  of  ambition, 
once  lays  aside  that  peculiar  character  which  God  hath  given 
her  for  a  glory  and  a  covering,  and  attempts  to  assume  the 
character  and  play  the  part  of  man  on  the  world's  great  stage, 
instead  of  raising  manhood  to  the  skies  she  only  sinks  it  to 
the  level  of  the  brute  or  demon.  A  man  does  not  more  unsex 
himself  and  discredit  humanity,  by  wearing  a  woman's  garb  and 
acting  a  woman's  part  in  life,  than  do  women  degrade  and 
unwoman  themselves  when  they  strive  to  be  like  men.  Jezebel 
and  Athaliah  tried  to  make  themselves  men,  and  succeeded  only 
in  making  themselves  fiends.  Their  example  is  as  full  of  warning 
as  it  is  of  woe.  But  they  have  not  been  without  their  succes- 
sors and  imitators.  Many  others,  undeterred  by  their  awful  fate, 
have  attempted  to  play,  on  a  larger  or  smaller  scale,  the  same  des- 
perate game  of  ambition  and  folly.  One  of  the  most  noted  instan- 
ces in  moderm  history  is  that  of  the  highly-gifted,  but  eccentric 
Christina,  queen  of  Sweden.  Restless,  dissatisfied,  and  un- 
happy, even  on  the  throne,  because  Providence  had  not  made 


TS    THE    BIBLE.  237 

her  a  man,  she  at  length,  to  the  grief  and  mortification  of  her 
people,  abdicated  the  throne,  apostatized  from  the  religion  of 
her  Protestant  father,  and  left  her  native  land  to  wander  over 
Europe  in  the  dress  of  a  man.  Assuming  male  attire,  and  dis- 
missing all  her  female  attendants  on  the  border,  she  renounced 
her  country,  her  religion,  her  sex,  and,  as  we  think,  her  charac- 
ter as  a  woman,  with  the  declaration  :  "  I  would  become  a  man  ; 
but  it  is  not  that  I  love  men  because  they  are  men,  but  merely 
that  they  are  not  women." 

Alas  !  have  we  not  reason  to  fear,  that  the  succession  in  this 
unwomanly  and  wicked  folly,  has  not  yet  ceased  ?  Are  there 
not  still  those  who,  instead  of  honoring  that  noble  and  glorious 
heritage  of  womanhood  which  God  hath  given  them,  are  filled 
with  a  miserable  ambition  to  be  like  men,  and  spend  their  lives 
in  an  open  quarrel  against  earth  and  heaven,  because  they  are 
not  and  cannot  be  men  ? 


vs.. HERODIAS  AND  HER  DANCING  DAUGHTER. 

In  this  connection  it  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  intro- 
duce another  mother  and  daughter  of  somewhat  similar 
character  from  the  pages  of  the  New  Testament.  Among 
the  very  few  dark  pictures  of  female  character  in  these  later 
Scriptures,  there  is  one  that  stands  out  prominently  as  a 
warning  to  all  generations.  It  is  that  of  the  incestuous 
wife  of  Philip,  and  her  dancing  daughter,  whose  life  of  sinful 
pleasure  demanded  no  less  a  sacrifice  than  the  blood  of  John 
the  Baptist. 

It  is  somewhat  doubtful  whether  the  daughter  of  Herodias 
ought  to  be  classed  among  the  women  or  children   of  the  New 


238  TYPES  OF  FEMALE  CHARACTER 

Testament  at  the  time  she  is  represented  as  dancing  before  He- 
rod. She  may  have  been  a  woman  grown,  or  nearly  grown,  at 
that  time.  It  is  more  probable,  however,  that  she  was  a  young 
girl,  as  yet  entirely  subservient  to  the  will  of  her  wicked  moth- 
er. The  readiness  with  which  she  let  go  the  opportunity  of 
gaining  some  splendid  present  from  the  king  for  herself,  in  or- 
der to  gratify  her  mother's  unreasonable  and  atrocious  request 
for  the  head  of  John  the  Baptist,  seems  to  show  that  she  had 
not  reached  an  age  to  think  for  herself,  but  was  still  within  the 
sphere  of  girlhood.  It  was  hardly  to  be  expected  that  any 
thing  good  could  come  out  of  the  Herodian  family;  and  the 
incident  recorded  of  this  young  girl,  gives  a  striking  illustration 
of  the  depravity  which  prevailed  in  what  might  be  called  the 
elegant,  fashionable  circles  of  that  day.  It  was  then  as  it  is 
now  in  such  circles — the  child  was  a  true  mirror  to  reflect  the 
vices  of  the  parent. 

Of  all  the  comments  we  have  seen  on  this  transaction,  the 
most  graphic  is  that  of  Dr.  Kitto,  which  we  here  give  in  his 
own  words  :  "  It  was  his  birth-day,  which  was  celebrated  with 
high  festivities  at  court.  The  Jews  generally  disliked  the  cele- 
bration of  birth-days  :  and  this  was  one  of  the  heathen  customs 
which  the  Herodian  family  had  adopted  from  the  Romans.  On 
the  present  occasion,  Herod  gave  a  great  supper  to  his  lords, 
high  captains,  and  chief  estates  ;  and,  before  it  closed,  a  fair 
young  girl,  to  whom  Herod  was  greatly  attached,  was  intro- 
duced, and  commenced  one  of  those  solo  dances  for  which  the 
East  has  long  been  celebrated.  That  fair  child  was  Salome,  the 
daughter  of  Herodias  by  her  former  husband.  With  such 
marvellous  grace  and  thrilling  effect  did  she  perform  this  dance, 
that  Herod,  already  warm  with  wine,  became  excited,  and,  in 
the  fervor  of  his  enthusiasm,  vowed  that  she  should  have  what- 


IN    THE   BIBLE.  239 

ever  she  asked,  even  to  the  half  of  his  kiugdom.  Little  could 
he  imagine  what  this  child  had  been  tutored  by  her  wicked 
mother  to  ask  ;  and  he  was  shocked  and  grieved,  when,  instead 
of  some  costly  bauble,  she  asked  for  the  head  of  John  the 
Baptist.  The  sternest  man  there  must  have  shuddered  to  hear 
from  those  beautiful  young  lips  the  blood-thirsty  request,  atro- 
ciously specific,  *  Bring  me  here  the  head  of  John  the  Baptist  in 
a  charger.'  John  is  not  only  to  lose  his  head,  but  the  bleeding 
trophy  is  to  be  brought  to  her  ;  it  is  to  be  brought  to  her  thtrt^ 
that  there  may  be  no  evasion  ;  that  the  high  lords  who  have 
heard  the  vow,  may  witness  its  fulfillment.  Then  she  tells  how 
it  is  to  be  brought.  Not  in  any  careless  way,  not  in  a  napkin, 
not  held  by  the  hair,  but  in  a  dish  ;  so  that  she — that  young 
girl — may  receive  it  into  her  own  hands,  and  take  it  where  she 
pleased,  without  danger  of  soiling  her  rich  dress  with  a  prophet's 
blood.  This  is  frightful.  It  was  done,  nevertheless.  A  man 
was  sent  to  behead  John  in  prison  ;  and  presently  it  was  brought 
to  the  young  princess,  who,  doubtless,  received  it  with  becoming 
grace,  and  bore  it  off  daintily  to  her  mother.  That  the  girl 
could  go  through  all  this,  however  well  tutored,  seems  to  show 
that  Salome  was  indeed  a  true  daughter  of  Herodias.  How  she 
received  this  precious  gift  we  are  not  told  ;  but  there  is  a  tra- 
dition that  she  drew  forth  the  still  warm  tongue  that  had 
rebuked  her  crimes,  and  veiigefully  transfixed  it  with  her  bodkin." 
Poor  young  girl  !  what  an  education  had  she  received  I 
Her  mother,  no  doubt,  looked  with  pride  upon  her  splendid 
accomplishments.  What  treasure  had  she  not  expended  in 
teaching  her  to  dance  1  And  now,  though  so  young,  she  was 
perfect,  even  in  the  sight  of  the  king  and  all  his  great  lords  I 
An  elegant  dancer,  with  a  mind  utterly  destitute  of  intellectual 
and  moral  culture  I     Her  mother  had  succeeded  in  making  her 


240  TYPES    OF    FEMALE    CHARACTER 

an  adept  in  that  accomplishment,  in  which  any  stage-player 
or  circus-rider  might  have  excelled  her,  and  had  left  her  desti- 
tute of  that  intellectual  grace,  without  which  woman  is  a 
cipher,  and  of  that  m-oral  grace,  without  which  she  soon 
becomes  a  monster.  She  was  the  daughter  of  a  royal  house, 
and  she  could  dance,  but  her  young  hands  were  stained  with  a 
prophet's  blood,  chiefly  because  of  her  superiority  in  dancing. 
How  much  better  would  it  have  been  for  her  if  she  had  never 
learned  to  dance  !  How  much  better  if  her  name  had  come 
down  to  us,  like  that  of  another  and  humbler  Salome,  who, 
probably,  never  danced  at  all,  but  lives  embalmed  in  the  most 
precious  of  all  memorials,  as  one  who  watched  at  the  sepulchre 
of  Jesus.  Who  would  now  exchange  the  reputation,  not  to  say 
the  lot,  of  Salome,  watching  at  the  tomb,  for  that  of  Salome,  the 
dancing  daughter  of  a  queen  ? 

And  what  a  commentary,  by  the  way,  does  this  case  afford 
on  the  boasted  accomplishment  of  dancing  I  The  evil  of  danc- 
ing consisted  then,  as  it  always  has  consisted,  not  in  the  dancing 
itself,  but  in  tlfe  things  it  leads  to.  In  that  case  it  led  to  a  sinful 
excitement,  a  foolish  oath,  and  an  awful  murder.  And  in  how 
many  cases  has  it  led  to  the  loss  of  health,  the  loss  of  life,  and 
the  loss  of  the  soul  ?  In  how  many  cases  has  it  blotted  out  for- 
ever every  serious  impression,  and  prepared  the  young  to  run  a 
career  of  folly  and  reckless  dissipation  ?  And  is  it  no  sin  for 
Christian  parents,  knowing  the  evils  to  which  dancing  is  sure  to 
lead,  deliberately  to  teach  their  children  this  dangerous  accom- 
plishment ?  Will  they  give  them  cards,  and  not  expect  them 
to  gamble  ?  Will  they  send  them  to  the  theatre,  and  not 
expect  them  to  be  injured  ?  Will  they  send  them  to  the  race- 
course, and  then  caution  them  to  beware  of  evil  influences? 
And  shall  they  train  their  children  to  all  the  "  misty  mazes  '* 


IN   THE    BIBLE.  241 

of  the  dance,  and  yet,  with  strange  inconsistency,  expect  God  to 
convert  and  save  them,  while  thus  placing  one  of  the  greatest 
obstacles  in  the  way  ? 

Salome's  dancing  was  evil,  because  it  led  to  evil.  And  yet 
this  was  the  least  objectionable  form  of  dancing.  It  was  a  solo 
dance,  and  that  by  a  female  ;  and  that  too  at  home  in  her  mo- 
ther's house.  The  advocates  of  our  modern,  promiscuous  dan- 
cing, sometimes  pretend  to  justify  it  by  the  Scriptures.  But 
they  forget  that  no  such  thing  as  the  dancing  of  the  sexes  to- 
gether is  to  be  found  in  the  Scriptures.  There  are  instances  of 
a  man  dancing  alone  in  a  religious  service,  as  David  did  ;  and 
manyinstances  where  women  danced  with  women  as  Miriam  at 
the  Red  Sea  ;  but  we  can  confidently  affirm,  that  there  is  not  a 
single  example  of  our  modern  fashion  of  the  sexes  dancing  to- 
gether, in  all  the  Bible  from  Genesis  to  Revelation.  No  man 
can  show  any  place  in  the  Bible  where  men  joined  with  women 
in  the  dance.  And  for  this  ancient  custom  some  tolerable  rea- 
son might  be  given.  For  if  healthful  exercise  of  the  body 
is  the  thing  aimed  at  in  dancing,  why  not  let  ladies  take  it  alone 
and  under  circumstances  where  they  can  get  the  full  benefit 
of  it,  untrammelled  by  the  presence  of  men  ?  Does  common 
sense  require  people  to  take  exercise  at  night  in  crowded  suffo- 
cating rooms,  in  full  dress,  bound  and  girdled  to  very  compres- 
sion ?  Can  you  imagine  anything  more  uncongenial  to  a  lady's 
health  than  the  late  hours,  the  torturing,  tight  dress,  and  the  vio- 
lent yet  constrained  exertion,  of  the  ball-room  ?  When  men  per- 
form their  hardest  labor,  they  wish  to  be  alone,  or  in  the  open  air, 
or  at  least  freed  from  the  burden  of  much  dress.  But  delicate 
ladies  go  through  the  excessive  fatigues  of  the  dance,  often  the 
hardest  labor  of  their  lives,  the  very  victims  and  martyrs  of  the 
fashionable  dress-maker,  and  all  this  for  the  sake  of  healthful 

11 


242  TYPES  OF  FEMALE  OHARACTER 

exercise  !  Surely,  the  flimsiest  of  all  sophistries  is  the  pretence 
that  health  can  be  promoted  under  the  artificial  and  absurd  con- 
ditions of  our  promiscuous  dancing.  If  health  be  the  object,  let 
ladies  dance  at  home  immediately  after  the  morning  bath,  the  ear- 
lier the  better.  If  there  be  "  a  time  to  dance,"  that  would  be 
the  best  time. 

But  if  graceful  motion  be  the  thing  aimed  at,  why  mix  it  up 
with  the  uncouth  and  grotesque  awkwardness  of  the  male  dan- 
cer ?  As  for  men,  they  certahily  can  find  a  better  species  of 
exercise  ;  and  gracefulness,  in  their  case,  is  out  of  the  question. 
We  may  be  free  to  admit,  there  is  something  womanly  and 
graceful  in  the  movement  of  the  female  dancer  ;  though  even  in 
her  case,  the  gracefulness  is  mainly  owing  to  the  flowing  dress, 
or  to  personal  beauty.  If  the  lady  is  naturally  graceful  and 
comely,  she  would  look  just  as  well  on  horseback,  or  on  a  morn- 
ing or  evening  walk,  as  in  the  dance.  If  she  is  ugly,  and  badly 
dressed,  no  extra  skill  in  dancing  can  redeem  the  performance 
from  contempt.  So  that,  even  in  the  female  dancer,  this  boast- 
ed gracefulness  of  movement  is  far  more  dependent  upon  other 
accidental  circumstances,  than  upon  any  intrinsic  beauty  in  the 
act  of  dancing.  The  grace  is  in  the  person,  not  in  her  move- 
ments, and  would  belong  to  her  just  as  well  if  she  did  not 
dance  at  all. 

But  be  the  case  as  it  may  with  a  young  girl,  who  ever  saw 
anything  graceful  and  dignified  in  the  dancing  of  men  ?  To 
us,  the  whole  thing  of  a  man's  dancing  is  absurd  and  ridiculous 
to  the  last  degree.  If  there  were  nothing  else  against  it,  the 
closely  cut  dress  of  our  modern  man  of  fashion,  fitting  his  body 
and  limbs  like  the  bark  of  a  tree,  renders  graceful  dancing  an 
impossibility.  There  is  no  poetry  in  any  such  exhibition  of  a 
Aan,  or  of  any  other  animal  clad  as  he  is.     For  if  the  man  la 


IN    THE   BIBLE.  243 

large  and  heavy,  the  spectacle  calls  up  the  image  of  an  elephant 
whose  very  footstep  shakes  the  ground.  If  the  man  is  small 
and  frisky,  we  are  constantly  reminded  of  the  fitful  antics  of  a 
monkey  or  baboon.  If  the  performer  is  tall  and  slender,  who 
knows  when  his  excessive  gyrations  may  bring  him  down  like  a 
sapling  before  the  wind.  Whatever  dancing  may  be  as  an 
amusement  for  women  and  children,  we  cannot  rank  it  among 
the  manly  sports  and  performances.  The  actions  of  man  are 
graceful  only  as  they  are  manly  ;  and  they  are  manly  only  as 
they  are  in  keeping  with  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  men. 
On  this  principle,  all  the  exercises  of  labor  in  art  and  industry 
may  be  graceful  ;  the  evolutions  of  the  soldier  under  arms  may 
be  graceful  ;  the  bearing  of  gentlemen  in  all  the  needful  inter- 
course of  society  may  be  graceful.  But  dancing,  being  a  mere 
amusement,  in  no  way  related  to  any  of  the  needful  employ- 
ments of  life,  can  be  defended  on  no  such  ground  as  that  of  dig- 
nified, manly  exercise  ;  but  must  stand  as  a  mere  amusement, 
on  its  own  intrinsic  propriety,  if  indeed  it  has  any.  Stripped, 
then,  as  it  is,  of  every  element  of  that  kind  of  beauty  which 
springs  from  utility  to  the  purposes  of  life,  what  is  there 
left  of  it,  as  a  mere  amusement,  to  make  it  decorous  in  men  ? 
Suppose  you  could  behold  a  company  of  men  alone  to  them- 
selves, dancing  with  each  other  for  mere  amusement,  or  dancing 
in  public  for  the  edification  of  others,  what  would  be  your  im- 
pressions of  the  scene  ?  Would  you  call  that  a  natural  and 
manly  sport  ?  No.  Your  contempt  for  an  exhibition  so  puerile 
would  be  in  exact  proportion  to  two  things  :  first,  the  zest  with 
which  they  enjoyed  it  ;  and  secondly,  the  age  and  standing  of 
the  men  who  could  be  thus  amused.  Hence,  we  say,  dancing  was 
never  intended  for  man  ;  least  of  all  for  our  modern  cloth-har- 
nessed man.     And  if  our  fine  gentlemen  must  dance,  they  ought 


244  TYPES  OF  FEMALE  CHARAJTER 

oat  of  mere  poetic  justice,  to  assume  the  toga  of  the  ancients  ; 
or  else,  for  the  sake  of  this  peculiarly  feminine  amusement  into 
which  they  have  intruded,  they  ought  to  borrow-  a  belt  and  a 
skirt  from  their  lady  partners. 

There  is  no  disputing  about  tastes,  according  to  the  ancient 
maxim,  and  thus  we  account  for  the  extreme  favor  in  which 
dancing  has  been  held  in  our  modern  fashionable  world.  As  to 
the  moral  bearing  of  it,  history  shows  that  it  has  ever  flourished 
most  in  two  opposite  stages  of  society — in  the  barbarous  state,  as 
among  all  savage  tribes,  and  in  a  corrupt,  degenerate  civilization, 
as  during  the  decUne  of  the  Roman  empire.  It  is,  however,  not 
the  only  relic  of  barbarism  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  degeneracy 
on  the  other,  which  has  been  adopted  as  the  peculiar  favorite 
of  our  most  refined  aristocratic  circles.  Tlie  theatre  can  boast 
the  same  authority  and  duelling  also — two  far  worse  things 
than  dancing,  though  upheld  by  that  same  sort  of  taste  which 
rejoices  in  the  dance. 

But  as  touching  the  classic  beauty  of  man's  dancing,  we  are 
very  willing  to  abide  by  the  decision  of  the  old  Greeks  and  Ro- 
mans. Most  assuredly,  these  masters  of  the  fine  arts,  who  have 
filled  the  world  with  monuments  of  classic  taste,  were  compe- 
tent judges  of  everything  that  could  be  deemed  essential  to 
grace  and  accomplishment  in  man  or  woman.  They  had  their 
dances.  But  with  them  it  was  a  performance  assigned  to  wo- 
men and  children,  or  to  hired  professional  characters,  trained 
for  the  purpose.  They  went  to  see  the  dance,  just  as  they  went 
to  see  the  circus,  or  stage  plays  ;  but  they  never  thought  of 
dancing  themselves  ;  at  least,  such  as  had  any  self  respect,  or 
claim  to  gentility.  Who  ever  heard  of  Roman  ladies,  or  wives 
and  daughters  of  Grecian  heroes,  dancing  with  men  ?  Who 
ever  read  of  Alexander  the  Great,  or  Julius  Caesar,  or  Pcmpey, 


IN    THE   BIBLE.  245 

or  Demosthenes,  dancing  like  a  young  girl  ?  Think  of  a  Ro- 
man senator  dancing  in  public  or  private  for  his  own  or  any- 
body's amusement  I  Think  of  these  world-conquerors,  whose 
aspirations  from  boyhood  were  all  of  glory,  exhibiting  them- 
selves in  that  capacity  to  which  the  young  gentlemen  of  our 
day  aspire — the  capacity  of  an  exquisite  dancer — the  brilliant 
achievement  of  a  ball-room  renown  I  It  was  only  as  Roman 
virtue  began  to  decay,  under  the  corrupt  sway  of  the  Emperors, 
and  effeminate  luxury  to  eat  out  all  manly  heroism  from  the 
hearts  and  habits  of  the  people,  that  dancing  won  its  way  into 
the  higher  circles.  In  the  days  of  Cicero,  the  sentiment  of  the 
genteel,  fashionable  world  was  that  which  he  expressed  ;  "  No 
man  dances  unless  he  is  mad  or  drunk."  If  dancing  was  thus 
thought  uuraanly,  when  the  performers  had  the  long,  flowing 
Grecian  and  Roman  dress  to  redeem  it  from  contempt,  how 
much  more  undignified  is  it  now,  when  the  prim,  starchy,  tight- 
fitting  attire  of  the  gentleman  dancer,  instead  of  concealing 
only  exposes  the  muscular  machinery  by  which  the  perform- 
ance is  carried  on  I  We  do  not  wonder  (if  the  anecdote  be 
authentic)  that  such  a  man  as  Daniel  Webster,  when  accosted 
in  the  saloons  at  Washington  by  one  of  those  sprightly  young 
gentlemen  who  think  that  the  earth  would  not  revolve  if  the 
dance  should  cease,  and  imploringly  asked  if  he  did  not  dance, 
should  have  replied  :  "  Xo,  sir  ;  I  never  believed  that  I  had 
the  capacity  to  learn."  We  cannot  guarantee  that  Mr.  Web- 
ster ever  said  it,  for  it  is  only  a  newspaper  report  :  we  are  very 
sure,  however,  that  he  ought  to  have  said  it,  for  it  is 
in  perfect  keeping,  alike  with  the  good  taste  and  the  greatness 
of  such  a  man,  that  he  should  never  discover  that  he  had  any 
capacity  to  dance. 

Viewed  in  all  its  pleas,  we  can  see  no  defence  of  our  modern, 


246  TYPES  OF  FEMALE  CHARACTER 

promiscuous  dancing,  from  the  charge  of  being  an  irrational, 
unscriptural  and  injurious  custom  ;  and  until  the  world  gets 
back  to  the  religious  solo  dance,  or  the  exclusively  female  dance, 
of  the  Bible,  we  shall  remain  in  the  opposition  to  all  dancing  ; 
and  we  would,  in  fact,  be  glad  to  see  the  whole  ceremony  ex- 
tirpated from  civilized  society  as  an  unmeaning  and  useless 
waste  of  time — the  offspring  of  a  barbarous,  and  the  idol  of  a 
degenerate  age. 

X. ABIGAIL,    HANNAH,    AND    MARTHA. 

But  gladly  leaving  these  dark  pictures  of  warning  and  woe, 
let  us  turn  now  to  three  very  prominent  examples  of  a  different 
order — three  admirable  women,  who  lived  at  different  periods, 
but  may  be  fitly  associated  in  the  same  group.  Hannah,  Abi- 
gail, and  Martha,  had  not  much  in  common,  either  as  to  their 
history  or  their  condition  in  life  ;  and  yet  there  was  a  solid 
basis  of  character,  consisting  in  energy,  earnestness,  prudence, 
and  sound  common  sense,  which  belonged  to  the  three  alike, 
and  strongly  distinguished  them.  The  wise,  the  amiable,  the 
judicious  wife  of  David,  the  earnest,  devout  and  self-denying 
mother  of  Samuel,  the  energetic,  hospitable,  affectionate  sister 
of  Lazarus,  taken  altogether,  present  us  with  a  rare  assemblage 
of  the  virtues  which  should  adorn  a  woman. 

We  know  not  whether  Solomon  drew  his  pictures  from  real 
life,  or  from  the  records  of  the  ancients.  We  know  not  that  any 
real  personage  sat  as  the  original  of  that  unrivalled  portraiture 
of  womanly  excellence,  which  he  has  drawn  for  us  in  the  clos- 
ing chapter  of  the  book  of  Proverbs.  If,  however,  we  might 
select  any  one  out  of  the  hundred  women  of  the  Bible,  who  was 
worthy  to  sit  for  such  a  picture,  and  who  came  nearest  to  the 


IN    THE    BIBLE.  247 

realization  of  that  splendid  impersonation  of  the  perfect  ladv, 
as  a  wife  and  mother,  we  should  select  one  of  these  ;  we  should 
select  the  wise  and  amiable  Abigail,  or  the  devout  and  holy 
Hannah.  But  the  probability  is,  that  Solomon,  like  all  other 
great  artists,  drew  his  images  of  beauty,  not  from  any  one,  but 
from  many  living  forms.  And  so,  if  we  take  the  excellences  of 
this  threefold  group,  and  add  them  all  together — if  we  take  the 
holy  Hannah,  the  wise  Abigail,  and  the  industrious  Martha, 
and  blend  their  virtues  all  in  one  character,  combining  the 
piety  of  the  mother  with  the  wisdom  of  the  wife  and  the  energy 
of  the  sister,  we  may  (excusing  the  anachronism)  realize  the  heau 
ideal  of  this  matchless  description.  You  have  doubtless,  often 
admired  this  gem  from  the  sacred  cabinet,  or,  to  speak  more 
properly,  this  crown,  all  radiant  with  gold  and  diamonds  and 
precious  stones,  which  the  royal  poet  hath  wrought  for  the 
moral  and  spiritual  coronation  of  woman.  We  may  safely 
affirm,  that,  after  nearly  three  thousand  years  of  progress  and 
improvement,  you  cannot  find  in  human  literature  either  in  its 
poetry  or  its  prose,  Burke's  celebrated  picture  of  his  wife  includ- 
ed, a  finer  and  more  complete  impersonation  of  all  that  consti- 
tutes the  glory  and  the  true  mission  of  woman  in  the  world, 
than  we  have  in  his  description  of  a  lady  of  the  olden  time. 
As  you  read  it,  think  of  Abigail,  Hannah,  and  Martha,  of  the 
Bible,  as  sitting  for  the  picture,  and  do  not  fail  to  commend  it 
to  the  Abigails,  Hannahs,  and  Marthas  of  our  own  day. 

"Who  can  fijd  a  virtuous  woman  ? 
For  her  price  is  far  above  rubies. 
The  heart  of  her  husband  doth  safely  trust  in  her, 
So  that  he  shall  have  no  need  of  spoil. 
She  wi!l  do  him  good  and  not  evil  all  the  days  of  her  life. 
She  seeketh  wool  and  flax, 
And  worketh  willingly  with  her  hands. 


248  TYPES    OF    Fi  MaLK    CHARACTEB 

And  she  is  like  the  merchant's  ships ; 

She  bringeth  her  food  from  afar. 

She  riseth  also  while  it  is  yet  night, 

And  giveth  meat  to  her  household, 

And  a  portion  to  her  maidens, 

She  considereth  a  field,  and  buyeth  it ; 

With  the  fruit  of  her  hands  she  planteth  a  vineyard* 

She  girdeth  her  loins  with  strength, 

And  strengtheneth  her  arms. 

She  perceiveth  that  her  merchandise  is  good  : 

Her  candle  goeth  not  out  by  night. 

She  layeth  her  hands  to  the  spindle. 

And  her  hands  hold  the  distaff. 

She  stretcheth  out  her  hand  to  the  poor ; 

Yea,  she  reacheth  forth  her  hand  to  the  needy. 

She  is  not  afraid  of  the  snow  for  her  household; 

For  all  her  household  are  clothed  with  scarlet. 

She  maketh  herself  coverings  of  tapestry ; 

Her  clothing  is  silk  and  purple. 

Her  husband  is  known  in  the  gates. 

When  he  sitteth  among  the  elders  of  the  land. 

She  maketh  fine  linen  and  selleth  it ; 

And  delivereth  girdles  unto  the  merchant. 

Strength  and  honor  are  her  clothing ; 

And  she  shall  rejoice  in  time  to  come. 

She  openeth  her  mouth  Avith  wisdom  ; 

And  in  her  tongue  is  the  law  of  kindness. 

She  looketh  well  to  the  ways  of  her  household, 

And  eateth  not  the  bread  of  idleness. 

Her  children  arise  up  and  call  her  blessed : 

Her  husband  also,  and  he  praiseth  her. 

Many  daughters  have  done  virtuously. 

But  thou  excellest  them  all ! 

Favor  is  deceitful  and  beauty  is  vain  ; 

But  a  woman  that  feareth  the  Lord,  she  shall  be  praised. 

Give  her  of  the  fruit  of  her  hands. 

And  let  her  own  works  praise  her  in  the  gates." 


IN  THE  BIBLE.  249 


XI. MARY  THE  MOTHER  OF  JESUS,  AND  MARY  OF  BETHANY. 

Almost  all  the  women  of  the  New  Testament  are  worthy  of 
our  admiration.  With  their  characters  you  are  already  so 
famih"ar  that  we  need  not  dwell  upon  them  long.  We  can 
know  them  but  to  love  them,  and  "  name  them  but  to  praise.*' 
It  would  be  a  pleasing  task  to  set  forth  the  virtues  of  the  pious 
Elizabeth,  the  aged  Anna,  the  charitable  Dorcas,  the  hospit- 
able Lydia,  the  warm-hearted  Mary  Magdalene.  But  we  must 
pass  over  all  these  to  speak  of  two  others,  who  are,  perhaps 
the  most  remarkable  of  the  whole  New  Testament  group — 
Mary  the  mother  of  Jesus  and  Mary  of  Bethany.  You  are, 
probably,  aware  that  there  are  five  Marys  mentioned  in  the 
New  Testament — Mary  the  wife  of  Cleophas,  and  Mary  the  mo- 
ther of  Mark,  in  addition  to  the  three  already  named.  But  the 
central  object  of  the  whole  group  is  the  Virgin  Mother  of  our 
Lord. 

The  Papists  have  gone  to  such  an  absurd  extreme  in  their 
idolatrous  exaltation  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  that  Protestants, 
avoiding  their  error,  are  scarcely  prepared  to  appreciate  her 
character  as  the  Bible  warrants.  We  must  not,  however,  fall 
into  the  opposite  extreme  of  withholding  our  respect  and  admir- 
ation from  the  one  woman  of  our  race,  who  was  accounted 
worthy  to  be  the  medium  of  the  Divine  Incarnation,  and  from 
whom  the  Son  of  God  derived  his  human  nature,  and,  to  some 
extent,  his  human  character.  No  such  glory  as  this  belongs  to 
any  other  woman.  But,  aside  from  this  distinction,  there  is 
not  a  female  character  in  all  the  Bible  adorned  with  nobler 
attributes  or  lovelier  virtues.  She  wins  our  affections  by  her 
humble,  unaffected  piety  ;  she  wins  our  sympathies  by  her  un- 

11* 


250  TYPES  OF  FEMALE  CHARACTER 

wonted  trials  ;  not  less  than  our  admiration,  by  the  unusual 
glory  which  heaven  conferred  upon  her.  The  angel  Gabriel 
pronounced  her  the  "  highly  favored  of  the  Lord,  blessed  among 
women  ;"  and,  in  her  own  beautiful  song  of  thanksgiving  to  the 
God  of  Abraham,  she  exclaims,  by  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  "All 
nations  shall  call  me  blessed."  But  though  she  knew  all  this, 
and  rejoiced  in  the  honor  of  being  the  mother  of  Israel's  long' 
predicted  Messiah — the  virgin  mother  to  whom  was  committed 
the  care  of  the  infancy  and  childhood  of  the  Immanuel  of  the 
prophets  ;  yet,  through  life,  she  seemed  never  elated  with 
vanity  or  ambition,  but  stands  as  a  model,  even  to  the  lowliest 
of  women,  by  that  uncomplaining  devotion 'with  which  she 
identified  herself  with  the  humble  fortunes  of  Joseph,  and  that 
motherly  tenderness  with  which  she  watched  the  destiny  of 
Jesus.  As  we  follow  her,  the  highly- favored  of  the  Lord,  the 
angel-honored  woman,  through  all  the  shifting  scenes  of  her 
history — the  manger  at  Bethlehem,  the  offerings  of  the  wise 
men,  the  interview  with  Simeon  and  Anna  at  the  temple,  the 
flight  into  Egypt,  the  carpenter's  shop  at  Nazareth,  the  journey 
to  the  passover,  the  three  days'  search  for  the  child  at  Jerusa- 
lem, the  marriage  at  Cana  in  Galilee,  the  press  through  the 
crowd  to  speak  with  him,  the  attendance  at  the  crucifixion — as 
we  follow  her  thus,  from  the  manger  to  the  cross,  and  see  the 
devoted  wife,  the  yearning  mother,  the  true-hearted  woman, 
pondering  all  these  things,  and  bearing  all  these  things,  until, 
at  last  she  stands  at  the  cross,  supported  by  her  companions  in 
tears,  and  even  then,  whilst  the  "  sword  is  piercing  her  own 
soul,"  ministering,  as  best  she  can,  to  the  dying  sorrows  of  her 
Son  and  Lord,  by  whom  she  is  committed  to  the  protection  of 
the  beloved  disciple — we  cannot  withhold  from  her,  and  we 
would  not,  if  we  could,  the  tribute  of  our  tears     It  is  a  relief 


IN    THE    BIBLE.  2Sfl 

and  a  privilege  to  join  with  all  generations  in  calling  her  bless- 
ed, in  admiring  the  character  and  revering  the  memory  of  such 
a  woman.  We  will  not,  because  we  are  Protestants,  consent 
to  lose  our  inheritance  in  such  a  character.  Such  a  character 
is  the  common  legacy  of  her  sex,  and  of  all  mankind,  handed 
down  as  an  incentive  to  virtue,  by  being  a  living  exemplification 
of  its  power.  Such  examples  reconcile  us  to  life,  and  help  to 
prepare  us  for  heaven,  by  making  us  feel  that  celestial  grace 
may  clothe  itself  in  the  frail  garments  of  humanity,  and  dwell, 
for  a  season,  here  on  earth  as  an  angel  of  mercy. 

*'  Earth  has  its  angels,  though  their  forms  are  moulded 
But  of  such  clay  as  fashions  all  below, 
Though  harps  are  wanting,  and  bright  pinions  folded 
"We  know  them  by  the  love-light  on  their  brow. 

**  I  have  seen  angels  by  the  sick  one's  pillow ; 

Theirs  was  the  soft  tone  and  the  soundless  tread ; 
When  smitten  hearts  were  drooping  like  the  willow. 
They  stood  between  the  living  and  the  dead. 

'*  There  have  been  angels  in  the  gloomy  prison, 
In  crowded  halls,  by  the  lone  widow's  hearth, 
And  where  they  passed  the  fallen  have  uprisen — 
The  giddy  paused,  the  mourner's  hope  had  birth. 

**  1  have  seen  one  whose  eloquence,  commanding, 
Roused  the  rich  echoes  of  the  human  breast ; 
The  blandishments  of  wealth  and  ease  withstanding, 
That  hope  might  reach  the  suffering  and  opprest. 

"  And  by  his  side  there  moved  a  form  of  beauty, 
Strewing  sweet  flowers  along  his  path  of  life, 
And  looking  up  with  meek  and  love-blent  duty— 
I  called  her  angel,  but  he  called  her  wife. 


252  TYPES  OF  FEMALE  CHARACTER 

"  0,  many  a  spirit  walks  the  earth  unheeded, 
That  when  its  veil  of  sadness  is  laid  down, 
Shall  soar  aloft  with  pinions  unimpeded, 
And  wear  its  glories  like  a  starry  crown." 

Sdch  was  Mary,  the  mother  of  Jesus.  And  such,  also, 
though  in  a  different  way,  was  Mary  of  Bethany,  the  sister  of 
Lazarus,  the  loving  disciple  of  Jesus.  With  her,  the  last  but 
not  the  least,  in  this  long  gallery  of  Scripture  portraits,  we 
must  now  bring  our  remarks  to  a  close.  No  one  could  more 
appropriately  close  the  scene.  There  is  a  charm  in  her  simple 
story  that  renders  her  character  peculiarly  attractive.  After 
all  that  has  been  said  of  the  others,  if  we  had  to  select  out  of 
all  the  hundred  any  one  for  a  daughter,  a  sister,  or  a  wife,  we 
should  be  most  likely  to  choose  the  affectionate  Mary  of  Beth- 
any. 

She  it  was  who  chose  the  good  part,  sat  at  Jesus^  feet,  and 
heard  his  word.  She  it  was,  also,  who,  a  few  evenings  before 
his  death,  brought  her  beautiful  alabaster  box  of  sweet  per- 
fume, and  poured  it  upon  his  head  as  a  consecration  for  the 
tomb.  And  for  this  act  of  deep  devotion  and  unutterable  love, 
she  received  the  only  eulogium  of  fame  which  the  Son  of  God 
ever  pronounced  ;  almost  the  only  personal  eulogium  which  is 
pronounced  on  man  or  woman  in  all  the  Bible — "  Verily  I  say 
unto  you,  wheresoever  this  gospel  shall  be  preached  throughout 
the  whole  world,  this  also  that  she  hath  done,  shall  be  spoken 
of,  for  a  memorial  of  her." 

And  how  truly  has  that  prediction  been  verified  !  How  won- 
drously,  while  other  great  deeds  have  been  forgotten,  has  that 
little  act  filled  the  world  with  its  fame  !  Who,  for  eighteen 
centuries,  has  not  heard  the  praise,  and  read  the  memorial  of 
Mary's  love  I     What  numbers  have  been  won,  and  what  num- 


IN    THE   BIBLE.  253 

bers  more  shall  yet  be  won  to  Jesus,  by  the  beauty  of  Mary'3 
youthful  piety  ! 

The  precious  perfame  of  that  alabaster  box  was  soon  lost 
upon  the  evening  air  of  Bethany  ;  but  the  perfume  of  a  love 
that  could  never  die,  still  remains  fresh  as  the  story  of  the 
cross.  The  hands  that  poured  it  out,  the  eyes  that  wept,  the 
hair  that  wiped  away  the  falling  tears,  and  the  heart  that  beat 
in  grateful,  holy  love,  were  all,  after  a  few  brief  years,  laid  to 
rest  in  the  silent  sepulchre  of  Bethany  :  but  the  name  and  the 
spirit  of  Mary  still  hve,  immortal  on  earth  and  immortal  in 
heaven.  Beautifully  has  it  been  written  of  her  and  of  her 
undying  eulogium  : 

"Thou  hast  thy  record  in  the  monarch's  hall, 
And  on  the  waters  of  the  far  mid  sea  ; 
And  where  the  mighty  mountain  shadows  fall, 
The  Alpine  hamlet  keeps  a  thought  of  thee  ; 
Where'er,  beneath  some  oriental  tree, 
The  Christian  traveller  rests — where'er  the  child 
Looks  upward  from  the  pious  mother's  knee 
There  art  thou  known — where'er  the  book  of  light 
Bears  hope  and  healing  ;  there,  beyond  all  bhght, 
Is  borne  thy  memory,  and  all  praise  above; 
0  say,  what  deed  so  lifted  thy  sweet  name, 
Mary  !  to  that  pure  silent  place  of  fame  ? 
One  lowly  offering  of  exceeding  love." 

Many  daughters  had  done  virtuously,  but  she  of  Bethany 
excelled  them  all.  No  sceptred  monarch,  no  jewelled  queen  of 
earth,  ever  won  such  a  commendation,  or  received  such  a 
monument  as  Mary's — "  Spoken  of  as  a  memorial  of  her." 
The  men  of  this  world,  in  their  generation,  have  delighted  to 
hold  in  proud  and  perpetual  remembrance  all  those  worthies  of 


254  TYPES  OF  FKMALE  CHARACTER   • 

past  ages,  who,  by  their  learnhig,  their  genius,  their  sufferings, 
or  their  swords,  have  battled  most  bravely  for  the  rights  of 
man,  and  have  left  their  marks  the  deepest  on  the  sands  of 
time. 

*'  Patriots  have  toiled,  and  in  their  country's  cause 
Bled  nobly,  and  their'  deeds  as  they  deserve, 
Receive  proud  recompense." 

In  honor  of  their  hallowed  dust,  and  their  imperishable 
deeds,  a  grateful  posterity  has  loved  to  pile  the  monumental 
column  higher  and  higher,  until  it  "  meets  the  sun  in  his  com- 
ing, and  the  last  rays  of  departing  day  play  around  its  summit." 
The  very  spots  that  gave  them  birth,  and  the  hallowed  retreats 
where  their  ashes  sleep,  have  been  rendered  immortal  by  their 
presence.  Their  names  have  been  linked  forever  with  the  seas 
and  oceans  on  which  they  sailed,  and  with  the  ancient  rocks, 
rivers,  and  mountains,  where  their  deeds  of  mighty  daring  were 
done.  The  muse  has  touched  her  lyre  with  unusual  melody, 
and  invoked  her  loftiest  inspiration  to  chant  their  requiem 
in  immortal  verse  : 

*'  They  fell  devoted  but  undying, 
The  very  gale  their  names  seemed  sighing; 
The  waters  murmured  of  their  name, 
The  woods  were  peopled  with  their  fame  ; 
The  silent  pillar,  lone  and  grey, 
Claimed  kindred  with  their  sacred  clay  , 
Their  spirits  wrapt  the  dusky  mountain, 
Their  memory  sparkled  o'er  the  fountain, 
The  meanest  rill,  the  mightest  river, 
Rolled  mingling  with  their  fame  forever." 


IN    THE    BIBLE.  255 

But  here  is  a  richer  recompense,  a  more  enduring  monument, 
a  higher  glory.  Here,  on  these  sacred  pages,  is  a  memorial, 
which  will  last  when  woods  and  waters,  pillars  and  temples, 
rivers,  mountains  and  sparkling  fountains,  shall  all  have  passed 
away.  The  good  name,  and  the  unsought  fame,  of  Mary  of 
Bethany,  shall  outshine  and  outlast  all  the  mere  heroes  and 
heroines  of  earth,  as  the  sun  outshines  the  stars  of  night,  and 
as  the  Divine  outlasts  the  human. 


XII. CONCLUDING    REMARKS. 

Such  is  a  faint  outline  of  the  female  biography  of  the  Bible. 
Has  it  no  attractions  ?  No  attractions  for  the  young  ?  No 
attractions  for  woman  ?  In  what  other  book  can  woman  find 
so  glorious  a  record  of  the  past  ?  In  what  other  book  can 
she  find  so  blessed  a  recompense  for  the  future  ?  To  what 
other  book  does  she  owe  so  much  for  that  beauty  of  character, 
dignity  of  position,  and  power  of  moral  influence,  which  she 
now  enjoys  in  every  civilized  laud  ?  Well  may  woman  stand 
by  the  Bible  ;  for  in  every  age,  and  in  every  country,  it  has 
stood  by  her.  Well  may  she  be  the  fast  friend  of  the  Bible  ; 
for  the  Bible  has  ever  been  her  best  of  friends.  Well  may 
woman  rejoice  in  the  success,  and  share  in  the  glory,  of  what 
the  Bible  has  done  for  mankind  ;  for  it  is  mainly  through  its 
influence  on  woman  that  the  Bible  has  reached  the  heart  of  the 
world.  It  is  by  making  woman  what  she  has  been,  and  what 
she  now  is,  wherever  its  influence  has  been  felt  at  all,  that  the 
Bible  has  been  able  to  do  anything  for  man,  or  make  any  head- 
way in  bringing  the  world  to  its  present  advanced  condition. 

The  softest,  sweetest,  purest  light,  which  earth  \^as  able  to 
throw  around  the  sorrowful  pathway  of  the  Son  of  God,  as  he 


256  TYPES  OF  FEMALE  CHAKACTER 

toiled  for  our  good,  was  the  light  which  sympathizing  woman 
shed,  as  she  ministered  to  his  wants.  It  is  to  the  eternal  honor 
of  woman,  that  she  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  rejection  and 
crucifixion  of  the  Son  of  God.  The  women  of  Galilee  and  the 
daughters  of  Jerusalem  ministered  to  him  and  sympathized  with 
him  to  the  last.  So  far  as  our  record  goes,  no  hand  or  voice 
of  woman  was  ever  lifted  against  the  life  of  Jesus,  and,  except- 
ing only  the  damsel  who  accused  Peter,  none  against  his  dis- 
ciples. Even  the  heathen  wife  of  Pilate  made  an  effort  to  save 
him.  In  that  darkest,  bloodiest,  tragedy  of  history,  so  far  as 
we  are  informed,  woman  took  no  part  but  that  of  sorrow  and 
sympathy,  for  the  suflferer.  There  is  every  reason  to  think 
that  if  woman  could  have  saved  him,  Jesus  would  not  have  been 
crucified.  So,  that  while  she  bears  the  blame  of  being  foremost 
in  the  first  great  transgression,  she  is  not  chargeable  with  the 
awful  guilt  and  cruelty  of  the  last.  Her  sole  office  at  the  cruci- 
fixion was  to  watch  and  weep,  and,  so  far  as  she  could,  miti- 
gate the  sorrows  of  her  suffering  Saviour. 

And  so  in  return  for  this  sympathy,  the  most  blessed  and 
cheering  light,  which  heaven,  in  its  mercy,  has  ever  thrown 
around  the  suffering  pathway  of  woman,  on  earth,  is  the  light 
which  shines  out  from  the  Bible  and  the  cross.  Heaven  was 
pleased  when  the  daughters  of  Israel  received  the  Son  of  God 
to  their  houses  and  their  hearts  ;  and,  to  the  daughters  of  every 
land  and  generation,  heaven  has  repaid  their  friendship  a 
thousandfold,  by  that  gift  of  gifts — the  Bible.  The  women  of  the 
Bible,  especially  those  of  the  New  Testament,  in  the  part  they 
enacted  in  the  history  of  Jesus,  are  the  typical  characters  of 
their  sex  for  all  the  ages  to  come*.  They  stood  at  the  cross,  as 
the  true  representative  women  of  Christianity.  It  is  not  to  be 
overlooked,  that  they  stood  there,  bearing  all  the  high  social 


IN    THE    BIBLE.  257 

relations  which  have  since  constituted  the  peculiar  charm  and 
glory  of  Christian  woman  ;  in  the  character  of  mother  and  wife 
and  sister  and  maiden,  performing  their  holy  ministries  of  love  in 
that  awful  scene.  The  brief  reference  of  the  Evangelist  to 
them  is  deeply  significant.  "  Now  there  stood  by  the  cross  of 
Jesus,  his  mother  and  his  mother's  sister,  Mary  the  wife  of 
Cleophas,  and  Mary  Magdalene."  Where  should  a  mother  and 
wife  and  sister  be,  if  not  at  such  a  scene  ?  And  from  that  day 
to  this,  when  has  Christian  woman  ever  failed  to  be  at  the 
cross  of  suffering  virtue  ! 

Here  at  the  cross  we  behold  the  grand  inauguration  of  wo- 
man's true  mission  and  vocation  amongst  men.  Here  was  she 
called  and  consecrated  of  God,  as  by  a  new  baptism,  to  that 
companionship  with  suffering,  and  to  those  offices  of  kindness 
and  condescension,  which  were  to  make  her  the  ministering  an- 
gel of  a  dying  world  from  that  day  onward  to  the  end  of  time. 

Here  in  the  deep,  unutterable  sympathy  of  these  bleeding  but 
still  steadfast,  loving  hearts,  at  the  cross,  we  discern  the  prophe- 
tic type  of  that  wonderful  combination  of  character — courage, 
compassion,  fortitude  and  self-sacrificing  devotion — which  woman 
has  ever  since  been  winning  for  herself  on  a  thousand  fields, 
from  the  days  of  Anastasia,  Monica,  and  Helena,  of  the  ancient 
church,  down  to  Elizabeth  Fry,  Dorothea  Dix,  Lady  Colqu- 
boun  and  Florence  Nightingale  of  our  own  times. 

And  truly,  if  we  needed  any  demonstration  that  the  Christian- 
ity of  this  nineteenth  century  is  a  vital  power  in  the  earth,  we 
have  it  in  the  fact  that  woman  is  still  true  to  that  great  com- 
mission which  was  given  her  at  the  cross  :  that  in  the  name  of 
Jesus,  she  is  willing  to  sacrifice  all,  to  suffer  all,  to  toil  and  die 
for  the  perishing.  We  have  the  proof  in  such  a  life  as  that  of 
Ann  Hasseltine  Judson.     We  have  the  triumphant  vindication 


258  TYPKS  OF  FEMALE  CHARACTER 

in  such  a  character  as  that  of  Florence  Nightmgale.  And  the 
homage  which  the  world — even  the  infidel  world — ^is  paying  to 
such  virtue,  is  but  an  unconscious  tribute  paid  to  the  truth 
of  Christianity.  For  what  but  that  mighty  influence  of  redeem- 
ing love  which  first  attracted  the  women  of  Galilee  to  the  cross 
of  their  suffering  Saviour,  could  have  called  these  young  women 
away  from  their  homes  of  elegant  ease  and  aflQuence — the  one 
to  go  and  die  upon  an  inhospitable  heathen  coast  after  years  of 
privation  and  peril,  the  other  to  brave  all  the  risks  of  war  and 
pestilence  in  a  foreign  land,  and  to  watch  day  and  night  at  the 
couch  of  sickness  and  death.  What  book  but  the  Bible,  and 
what  influence  but  that  which  went  forth  from  Calvary,  ever 
formed  a  character  like  this  ?  If  goodness  be  a  test  of  truth, 
who  will  dare  to  say,  in  the  face  of  such  examples,  that  Christian- 
ity is  not  the  very  truth  of  God  ? 

You  need  not  fear  to  place  the  Bible  in  the  hands  of  your 
daughters,  just  as  it  is,  and  in  all  its  parts.  For  though  it  treats, 
with  unsparing  fidelity,  of  all  subjects,  and  all  shades  of 
character,  the  vicious  and  the  vile,  as  well  as  the  virtuous  and 
the  good,  yet,  unlike  any  other  book  of  genius,  it  leaves  on  all 
a  hallowed  influence.  No  one  was  ever  corrupted  by  the  plain- 
spoken  simplicity  of  the  Bible. 

Like  the  light  of  heaven,  it  is  never  contaminated  by  contact 
with  impurity.  It  is  as  pure  when  shining  on  the  stagnant 
marsh,  as  when  playing  around  the  tops  of  the  snow-clad  moun- 
tains. Beautifully  and  truly  has  it  been  said,  that,  "  the  finger 
of  inspiration,  like  the  finger  of  the  sunbeam,  touches  corrup- 
tion, and  still  remains  pure."  For,  when  the  Bible  speaks  on 
themes  too  delicate  for  common  speech,  w^e  are  made  to  feel  as 
though  we  were  listening  to  the  voice  of  God. 

For  beauty  and  sublimity,  for  taste  and  genius,  for  truth  and 


IN    THE    BIBLE.  259 

pnrity,  there  is  no  book  of  education  for  our  sons  and  daughters 
in  the  world,  that  can  take  the  place  of  the  Bible.  It  is  the 
book  which  every  pious  woman  seeks  to  put  into  the  hands  of 
her  child,  as  the  earliest  and  best  pledge  of  a  mother's  love, 
and  which,  ere  long,  when  she  comes  to  make  her  last  leg- 
acy, she  wishes  to  leave  as  a  holy  rehc,  sacred  to  a  dying 
mother's  memory.  Whatever  has  been  the  success  of  the 
Bible  on  other  fields,  there  is  oue  field  where  its  triumph  has 
been  complete,  so  far  as  it  has  gone.  It  has  gained  the  female 
heart.  It  has  won  the  victory  of  woman's  love.  It  has  liuked 
her  destiny  with  its  own  in  the  everlasting  bonds  of  mutual 
affection  and  mutual  interest.  And  the  hold,  which  the  Bible 
has  to-day  throughout  Christendom  upon  the  heart  of  woman,- 
is  as  strong  and  indissoluble  as  that  which  woman  herself  has 
upon  the  heart  of  man.  So,  that  if  the  infidel  sneer  were  true, 
that  the  Bible  is  fit  only  for  women  and  children,  it  would  be 
none  the  less  true,  that  it  has  thereby  controlled  the  destiny  of 
the  world.  For  as  all  men,  infidels  included,  were  once  children 
born  of  women,  how  could  God  make  a  book  more  fit  for  man 
than  by  making  it  fit  for  women  and  children. 

But  we  must  close  ;  and  we  know  not  how  to  close  such  a 
theme  more  appropriately  than  in  the  strong  hypothetical  lan- 
guage of  another  :  "  If  Christianity  shouUi  ever  be  compelled 
to  flee  from  the  mansions  of  the  great  and  the  noble,  from  the 
academies  of  philosophy  and  the  halls  of  legislation,  from  the 
thrones  of  power  and  the  throngs  of  busy  men,  we  should  find 
her  last  retreat  around  the  hearth-stones  of  Christian  homes, 
her  last  sanctuary  in  the  hearts  of  tlie  women  and  children  of  our 
firesides  ;  her  last  altar  on  earth  would  be  the  female  heart  ;  her 
last  audience,  the  children  gathered  around  a  mother's  knees  ; 
ber  last  sacrifice,  the  secret  prayer  escaping  in  silence  frcm 
ber  lips,  and  heard  perhaps,  on'y  at  the  throne  of  God." 


260  EEPRESENTATIVE   TOlfNG   MEN 


CHAPTER    VI. 

REPRESENTATIVE  YOUNG  MEN  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

Range  and  Limits  of  the  Theme— The  First  of  Young  Men— The  First  Two  Brothers- 
Character  of  Joseph — The  Youth  of  Moses — Sketch  of  David  and  Jonathan — Sketch 
of  Samuel  and  Saul— Saul  and  Samuel  at  Endor— Character  of  Absalom— The  Young 

.  Man  as  Sovereign— The  Young  Men  of  the  Captivity — Young  Men  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament. 

I. RANGE    AND    LIMITS    OF   THE    THEME. 

In  speaking  of  the  Young  Men  of  the  Bible  as  one  of  its 
attractions,  and  introducing  them  to  you  as  the  subject  of  a 
separate  chapter,  we  would  not,  by  any  means,  wish  to  incur 
the  charge  of  taking  undue  liberty  with-  sacred  and  venerable 
names  ;  or,  of  attempting  to  modernize  antiquity  beyond  what 
is  just  and  reasonable.  Some  degree  of  familiarity  of  this  kind 
may  do  us  good,  just  as  it  does  to  be  brought  into  immediate 
contact  or  communication  with  the  distant  parts  of  the  earth. 
We  must  modernize  antiquity,  somewhat,  in  order  to  appreciate 
it ;  even  as  we  translate  foreign  tongues  into  our  own  idiom 
before  we  can  feel  their  full  import.  The  time  is  probably  not 
distant,  when  the  whistle  of  the  steam-car  shall  be  heard  over 
the  hallowed  hills  of  Judea,  and  the  electric  telegraph  will,  no 
doubt,  soon  stretch  its  wires  along  the  base  of  Ararat  and 
across  the  plains  of  Shinar.  And  so,  the  more  we  can  be  made 
to  feel  that  our  antipodes  on  the  other  side  of  the  globe  are  our 


OF    THE    BIBLE-  261 

fellow-citizens,  and  the  more  we  can  be  made  to  realize  that  the 
antediluvians  on  the  other  side  of  the  flood  were  our  brothers, 
men  of  like  passions  with  ourselves,  the  better  shall  we  under- 
stand them,  and  the  better  will  it  be  for  the  world. 

The  young  men  of  the  Bible  I  How  rich,  how  comprehensive, 
how  suggestive  the  theme  !  How  full  of  hope  to  the  aged,  how 
full  of  enthusiasm  to  the  young,  how  fraught  with  interest  to 
all !  The  majority  of  men  in  our  day  claim  to  be  young  men  ; 
at  any  rate,  feel  themselves  to  be  young  ;  and  this,  for  all  the 
purposes  of  energetic  life,  is,  in  fact,  equivalent  to  being  young. 
To  picture  to  ourselves  the  men  of  antiquity  as  young  men,  is, 
therefore  the  most  effective  mode  of  bringing  them  home  to  our 
own  experience  ;  because  it  is  as  young  men  that  we  have 
most  in  common  with  them.  It  is  as  if  the  old  world  and  the 
new  stood  face  to  face,  and  thus  shook  hands  with  each  other 
on  friendly  and  familiar  terms. 

The  patriarchs  of  the  Bible,  who  stand  in  solemn  grandeur, 
like  sentinels  along  the  lines  of  history,  or,  like  mighty  mon- 
archs  with  the  crown  of  centuries  upon  their  heads,  were  all 
young  men  once  ;  as  truly  young  and  hopeful  as  any  of  us. 
And  if  we  wish  them  to  come  down  from  their  hereditary 
heights  to  converse  with  us  awhile,  we  must  conceive  of  them 
as  young  men,  like  ourselves.  Let  us  endeavor  to  get  the 
impression  fully  into  our  minds  that  the  first  men  in  the  world 
were  young  men  ;  that,  before  there  were  any  patriarchs  or 
venerable  names  in  history,  young  men  stood  forth  upon  the 
stage  of  life  as  the  fresh  materials  out  of  which  all  the  patri- 
archs and  ancients  of  history  had  to  be  fashioned.  The  child, 
it  has  been  said,  is  father  to  the  man  ;  in  the  same  sense,  the 
young  men  of  the  earliest  ages  have  become  the  founders  and 
forefathers  of  the  world.     To  them  belongs,  unsought,  the  high 


262  REPRESENTATIVE    YOTJNG    MEN 

distinction  of  being  the  model  men  of  all  ages,  the  original 
fountains  of  all  biography,  the  forefathers  of  all  history.  They 
have  become  to  all  generations,  what  they  were  to  their  imme- 
diate successors,  the  primitive  and  standing  types  of  humanity, 
the  representative  ideas  after  which  all  other  men  have  been,  to 
some  extent,  moulded  into  their  several  shapes  and  characters 
of  greatness. 

The  young  men  of  the  Bible  have  been  imitated,  reproduced, 
and  rivalled,  a  thousand  times  by  their  successors  ;  but  they 
have  never  yet  been  surpassed  by  any  of  them,  either  in  native 
genius,  in  mighty  prowess,  in  heroic  achievement,  or,  in  exalted 
piety.  Born  amid  the  glories  of  a  new-created  world,  cradled 
in  the  lap  of  the  most  ancient  civilization  of  our  race,  blessed 
with  the  birthright  of  the  earliest  of  all  human  primogeniture, 
and  crowned  by  God  himself  as  kings  and  priests  of  this  whole 
visible  creation,  they  have  ever  stood  prominent  amongst  men, 
like  Saul  among  the  Benjamites.  They  have  held  their  supre- 
macy through  all  the  lapse  of  time  ;  and  no  young  man  of 
their  successors  has  ever  been  able  to  snatch  from  their  grasp 
the  sceptre  of  wisdom,  power,  and  glory. 

There  have  been  mighty  men  of  valor  and  renown  in  every 
age  ;  giants  have  walked  the  earth  more  than  once,  and  the 
sons  of  genius  have  scaled  the  mountains  in  almost  every 
ancient  and  modern  laud  ;  more  than  one  young  Scipio  has 
wrested  glory  from  the  hands  of  an  aged  Hannibal  ;  more  than 
one  Pitt  wielded  the  helm  of  statesmanship  and  empire  in  early 
youth  ;  many  a  young  man,  even  in  our  day,  when  individual 
power  is  well-nigh  lost  in  that  of  the  masses,  has  made  his  mark 
upon  the  world,  and  left  his  foot-prints  deeply  imbedded  in  the 
sands  of  time.  But  then  it  must  never  be  forgotten,  that  what- 
ever heights  of  glory,  valor,  and  virtue,  these  mighty  men  of 


OF    THE    BIBLE.  263 

modern  times  have  attained,  they  have  been  greatly  indebted  to 
the  examples  of  greatness  set  before  them  in  the  Bible  ;  they 
have  only  followed  the  patterns  of  genius  which  have  been 
shown  to  them  in  this  ancient  mount  of  God.  It  is  fortunate 
for  mankind,  that,  while  the  earth  was  yet  fresh  and  fair, — 
youth  still  in  its  bloom,  the  life-blood  of  enthusiasm  beating  at 
the  full,  and  the  fires  of  genius  undimmed  by  disease  and  pre- 
mature decay, — some  of  the  earliest  and  the  largest  specimens 
of  man  should  have  been  caught  in  the  net  of  history,  whilst 
the  pen  of  a  ready  writer  w^as  at  hand,  to  describe  and  record 
them  in  a  book,  for  our  learning.  It  is  not  the  least,  among  the 
many  services  which  the  Bible  has  done  for  the  world,  that  it 
has  transmitted  to  us  these  specimens  of  a  primitive,  giant 
growth  ;  relics  and  memorials  of  physical,  intellectual  and 
moral  manhood,  stereotyped,  as  it  were,  or  fossilized,  for  the 
studies  of  the  youth  of  all  generations,  like  those  gigantic 
remains  of  a  pre-Adamite  world,  which  once  caught  and  caged 
within  the  rocks,  have  at  last  been  revealed  for  the  contempla- 
tion and  the  wonder  of  modern  geologists. 

The  youn^  men  of  the  Bible,  in  one  sense,  would  include  all 
the  men  of  whom  it  speaks  ;  inasmuch  as  they  were  all  once 
young.  But  this  would  give  us  a  theme  co-extensive  with  the 
whole  range  of  Scripture  biography,  a  theme  far  too  wide  for 
our  present  purpose.  It  is  proposed,  at  present,  to  take  a  more 
limited  view  ;  to  confine  ourselves  to  the  biography  of  those  who 
are  described  as  young  men,  and  who  are  celebrated  for  the 
qualities  they  possessed,  or  the  achievements  they  wrought,  in 
the  days  of  their  youth.  And  even  from  this  number,  which  is 
also  too  large  to  be  embraced  in  a  single  chapter,  we  must 
select  only  tho  most  remarkable  examples.  We  shall  aim  to 
present  to  you  those  notable  personages  that  stand  out  in  bold 


264  REPRESENTATIVE    YOUNG    MEN 

relief  on  the  canvas  of  inspiration,  most  strongly  marked  with 
the  several  attributes  of  genius,  wisdom,  courage,  piety,  ambi- 
tion or  folly  ;  such  as  will  best  serve  to  set  before  us  a  picture 
of  the  young  man  in  all  his  moods  of  mind,  in  all  his  shades  of 
character,  and  in  all  his  changes  of  fortune  ;  illustrating,  at 
one  view,  his  highest  ascent  on  the  pathway  of  glory  when  vir- 
tuous, and  his  deepest  degradation  in  the  abyss  of  ruin  when 
depraved.  For  it  is  thus,  by  the  mingling  of  the  good  and 
the  bad  together,  that  the  Bible  would  teach  us  the  great, 
double  lesson,  to  be  warned  from  hell  by  the  woes  of  the  one, 
and  allured  to  heaven  by  the  example  of  the  other.  But,  even 
in  this  last  selection,  it  will  be  our  privilege  and  our  choice  to 
lean  strongly  to  virtue's  side.  Of  the  several  characters,  who 
are  now  to  pass  under  review,  about  twenty  in  all,  it  will  be 
found  that  the  large  majority  were  such  as  feared  God  from 
early  youth,  and  made  their  lives  illustrious  in  virtue,  while 
only  a  few  attained  the  bad  preeminence  of  guilt  and  folly.  It 
is  with  the  young  men  of  the  Bible  generally,  as  it  was  with  the 
apostles  of  Christ,  one  Judas  associated  with  eleven  good  men. 
And,  whilst  many  other  examples  might  be  mentioned,  both 
among  the  evil  and  the  good,  still  the  twenty,  here  selected, 
seem  to  stand  out  so  prominently  above  their  fellows,  as  to 
justify  our  designation  of  them  as  the  Representative  Young 
Men  of  the  Bible. 

II. — THE  FIRST  OF  YOUNG  MEN. 

And  who  shall  head  the  list  ?  Shall  any  one  stand  before 
him,  who,  fresh  as  a  morning  in  Paradise,  stood  forth  in  all  the 
beauty  and  manly  vigor  of  a  life  just  begun,  at  once  the  noblest 
work  and  brightest  image  of  Jehovah  ?     It  is  manifest,  that  uc 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  265 

ennmeration  of  the  young  men  of  the  Bible  would  be  complete 
without  Adam,  the  first  of  men.  His  was  the  first  young  breath  ; 
the  first  throbbing  pulse,  of  an  almost  infinite  series.  He  was 
the  earliest  link  of  life  in  a  chain,  which  is  still  unbroken,  and 
is  ever  stretching  onwards.  He  was  a  young  man  in  a  double 
sense  :  first,  young  as  to  time,  compared  with  what  he  was 
when  he  died  :  and,  secondly,  young  in  nature,  because  created 
immortal,  in  a  state  absolutely  free  from  any  principle  of  decay, 
disease,  or  death.  At  his  creation  he  was  young  in  years  ;  and, 
by  nature,  he  was  young  in  immortality,  even  as  an  angel  is 
always  young  ;  and,  but  for  sin,  he  would  never  have  grown 
old.  Even  after  the  temptation  and  fall,  he  must  be  regarded 
as  a  young  man  for  at  least  fifty  or  a  hundred  years.  For, 
when  men  lived  almost  a  thousand  years,  this  would  be  a  shorter 
allowance  for  youth  and  early  manhood  than  twenty  or  even 
ten  years  now.  But  it  is  recorded  of  Adam,  that  he  lived  nine 
hundred  and  thirty  years  :  and  this  alone,  if  there  were  nothing 
else,  would  be  sufficient  to  show  that  it  was  not  as  an  old  man, 
nor  indeed  as  a  man  of  middle  age,  but  as  a  young  man,  Adam 
came  forth  from  the  hand  of  his  Creator — young  and  fresh  as 
the  green  trees  of  Paradise,  young  and  radiant  as  the  roses  that 
bloomed  along  its  banks,  young  and  joyous  as  the  birds  that 
warbled  amid  its  bowers,  young  and  beautiful  as  the  new-creat- 
ed light  of  the  morning,  young  and  vigorous  as  the  rising  sun, 
when  he  "  cometh  out  of  his  chamber,  and  rejoiceth  as  a  strong 
man  to  run  a  race." 

It  is  as  a  young  man  only,  that  our  present  theme  calls  us  to 
speak  of  Adam.  But  it  is  chiefly  as  a  young  man,  you  will  ob- 
serve, that  the  Bible  speaks  of  him.  It  tells  us  nothing  about 
the  deeds  of  his  life's  meridian,  or  the  events  of  the  long  cen- 
turies of  his  declining  old  age.     Aside  from  the  single  verse 

12 


266  REPRESENTATIVE    YOUNG    MEN 

that  writes  his  epitaph,  the  shadow  of  an  impenetrable  oblivion 
hangs  over  the  last  and  larger  portion  of  his  years.  In  fact, 
all  we  know  of  Adam  belongs  to  what  may  be  called  the  season 
of  his  youth.  All  the  great  things  which  he  did  or  suffered, 
by  which  he  left  his  mark  upon  mankind,  and  all  the  grand 
events,  which  the  providence  of  God  accomplished  by  him,  took 
place  while  he  was  yet  a  young  man.  His  communion,  face  to 
face,  with  God  ;  his  investiture  with  dominion  over  all  the  visi- 
ble creation  :  his  probation  as  the  federal  head  and  representa- 
tive of  our  race  ;  his  union  in  marriage  with  a  help-meet,  who, 
by  sharing  his  nature,  was  worthy  to  share  his  joys  and  destined 
to  share  his  woes  ;  his  transgression  and  fall  with  her  ;  his  con- 
demnation and  expulsion  from  Eden  ;  his  forfeiture  of  the  Divino 
favor,  and  of  life  for  himself  and  all  his  posterity — these  con- 
stituted the  great  events  of  the  life  of  Adam,  and  all  these 
must  have  occurred  before  he  had  ceased  to  be  a  young  man. 
To  the  same  period,  indeed,  must  be  referred  the  birth  and  ed- 
ucation of  his  two  eldest  sons. 

And  what  a  contrast  of  extremes  did  his  life  exhibit  I  As 
the  first  sovereign,  the  first  husband,  the  first  father,  the  first 
sinning  and  sorrowing  man,  how  speedily  did  he  pass  through 
all  those  scenes  of  trial,  those  alternations  of  bliss  and  woe, 
hope  and  despair,  glory  and  shame,  which  made  the  life  of  the 
first  young  man  forever  memorable  as  a  picture  and  prophecy 
of  the  whole  world  !  The  history  of  nearly  six  thousand  years 
has  been  but  a  vindication  of  his  title  as  our  federal  head  and 
representative.  No  claim  en  earth  was  ever  attested  by  a 
fuller  record  or  stronger  array  of  facts. 

Before  he  sinned  he  stood  upon  an  eminence  of  light,  of  wisdom, 
knowledge,  glory,  purity,  and  blessedness,  which  no  one  of  his 
successors  has  ever  reached  save  he  who  was  the  second  Adam. 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  Sfff 

The  genius  of  Haydn,  in  the  grand  oratorio  of  the  Creation, 
has  soared  on  its  subliniest  pinions,  when  celebrating  the  glory 
of  his  person,  the  excellence  of  his  character,  and  the  felicity  of 
his  original  estate. 

"  In  native  worth  and  honor  clad, 
"With  beauty,  courage,  strength  adorned, 
Erect  with  front  serene  he  stands, 
A  man,  the  lord  and  king  of  nature  all. 
His  large  and  arched  brow  sublime, 
Of  wisdom  deep  declares  the  seat, 
And  in  his  eyes  with  brightness  shines, 
•  The  soul,  the  breath  and  image  of  his  God. 

With  fondness  leans  upon  his  breast. 
The  partner  for  him  formed, 
A  woman  fair  and  graceful  spouse  ; 
Her  softly  smiling  virgin  looks, 
Of  flowery  spring  the  mirror. 
Bespeak  him  love  and  joy  and  bliss." 

But  there  was  a  change.  Oh,  how  rapid  and  mournful  the 
change  !  By  one  act  he  stooped  from  glory  to  disgrace,  from 
the  heights  of  immaculate  purity  and  Divine  companionship,  to 
the  depths  of  corruption,  desolation,  and  death.  It  was  a  trans- 
ition not  merely  from  life,  but  from  immortality  to  death.  By 
one  act  of  disloyalty  and  treason  against  the  Author  of  his 
being,  his  spiritual  and  immortal  beauty  was  forever  marred,  his 
physical  strength  decayed,  his  honor  in  the  dust.  The  silver 
cord  of  youth  was  loosed,  the  golden  bowl  of  glory  broken,  the 
pitcher  with  all  its  nectared  waters  of  life  crushed  at  the  foun- 
tain, and  the  wheel  that  should  have  drawn  endless  supplies  from 
the  wells  of  immortality,  shattered  into  fragments  at  the  cistern. 

In  this  first  apostasy,  we  behold  an  illustration,  as  lasting  as 


268  REPRESEITTATIVE    YOUNG    MEN 

our  race,  of  the  fearful  turpitude  of  sin.  In  the  awful  conse* 
quences  which  have  flowed  and  are  still  flowing,  wide  as  the 
world  and  ceaseless  as  the  course  of  time,  from  that  first  sin  of 
the  first  of  young  men,  God  has  taught  the  world,  as  though 
the  buried  dead  of  sixty  centuries  lifted  up  their  solemn  voices 
from  the  dust,  crying,  "  the  way  of  the  transgressor  is  hard." 
For  if  the  earth,  as  we  see  it  now,  with  all  its  generations  of 
the  living  and  the  dead,  is  still  bearing  the  curse  and  paying 
the  penalty  of  that  first  transgression,  what  shall  the  end  be 
of  those  who  are  still  living  in  sin  sixty  centuries  nearer  to  the 
day  of  final  reckoning  ?  Ah  I  there  is  a  voice  in  the  example 
of  this  first  of  men,  which  will  go  down  to  the  last  of  liis  pos- 
terity as  fresh  and  earnest  as  it  comes  to  us  to-day,  saying,  Take 
heed,  the  wages  of  sin  is  death. 


III. THE    FIRST   TWO    BROTHERS. 

Passing  from  Adam  to  his  sons,  we  may  dwell,  for  a  moment, 
on  the  two  brothers,  Cain  and  Abel,  as  prominent  characters 
among  the  young  men  of  the  Bible.  In  that  fearfully  skeptical 
production  of  Byron,  called  the  "  Mystery  of  Cain,"  in  which  ho 
makes  Cain  study  theology  under  the  instructions  of  the  devil, 
and  utter  almost  every  kind  of  blasphemy  against  his  Maker, 
the  two  brothers  are  represented  as  married  men  at  the  time  of 
Abel's  death.  Byron,  though  a  gifted  poet,  was  but  a  sorry 
theologian  ;  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  no  young  man,  however 
fascinated  by  his  genius,  will  ever  take  him  as  an  authority  for 
his  faith,  or  as  an  example  for  imitation  in  matters  of  religion. 
Still,  in  this  case,  there  is  nothing  in  the  sacred  narrative  to  con- 
tradict his  representation  of  the  brothers  as  married  men.     The 


OF    THE    BIBLE.  269 

probability  is,  that,  by  an  ordinance  of  marriage  made  expressly 
for  Adam's  family,  the  sisters  of  these  two  brothers  had  become 
their  wives,  and,  it  may  be,  the  mothers  of  their  children,  prior  to 
the  dreadful  tragedy  narrated  in  the  fourth  chapter  of  Genesis. 
And  if  so,  though  the  Bible  is  silent  on  the  subject,  this  double  rela- 
tionship would  seem  to  give  a  deeper  interest  to  the  recital,  and  cast 
a  darker  gloom  over  the  scene  of  the  first  murder  and  fratricide. 

Be  this,  however,  as  it  may,  it  is  manifest,  from  the  very  face 
of  the  narrative,  that  the  two  brothers  were  then  young  men, 
and  of  about  the  same  age,  possibly  twin  brothers.  They 
would  be  comparatively  young  for  that  generation,  even  at  the 
birth  (ff  their  younger  brother,  Seth,  one  hundred  and  twenty 
years  after  the  Creation  ;  for  a  century  could  have  abated 
nothing  from  the  vigor  of  an  existence  whose  natural  limit  was 
a  millennium.  But  we  know  that  .the  death  of  Abel  had 
already  occurred  before  the  birth  of  Seth,  probably  some  con- 
siderable time  before. 

Contemplate  for  a  moment,  then,  the  case  of  these  first  brothers 
of  our  race,  whose  tragic  story,  short  as  it  is,  possesses  for  us  a  far 
deeper  interest  and  significance  than  that  of  the  celebrated  but 
somewhat  fabled  Romulus  and  Remus,  to  which  the  greatest  em- 
pire of  the  ancient  world  traced  its  origin.  Children  together, 
the  first  that  ever  felt  the  caresses  of  parental  love  ;  companions 
for  each  other  in  all  sports  and  pastimes  of  boyhood  from  early 
dawn  to  even-tide  ;  the  sharers  of  each  other's  budding  thoughts, 
the  partners  in  each  other's  youthful  joys,  the  keepers  of  each 
other's  ripening  counsels,  and,  as  yet,  the  joint  and  only  heirs 
apparent  to  all  the  world  ;  young  men,  each  in  his  occupation 
blest,  the  one  a  shepherd  of  the  flocks  with  all  their  living 
wealth,  the  other  a  tiller  of  the  ground  with  all  its  teeming  pro* 
duce  J  young  men,  girded  with  strength  and  power,  with  bodily 


270  REPRESENTATIVE   YOUNG   MEN 

frames  that  might  endure  a  thousand  years,  with  knowledge 
such  as  Adam  and  Eve,  who  had  talked  face  to  face  with  God, 
could  teach  them,  with  intellects  only  one  remove  from  the  in- 
spiration of  the  Almighty,  with  enthusiasm  fed  on  all  that  was 
sublime  and  beautiful  in  the  blue  heavens  overhead  and  the 
green  earth  at  their  feet — thus  blest  and  thus  endowed,  these 
two  brothers  ought  to  have  lived  to  love  each  other,  to  bless 
the  world,  and  to  glorify  God. 

And  but  for  sin,  they  would  have  done  so.  Alas,  what  bitter 
fruits  did  the  tree  of  transgression  bear  in  the  first  family  of  a 
fallen  race  I  apples  of  Sodom,  where  lately  bloomed  the  tree  of 
life,  and  grapes  of  Gomorrah,  where  might  have  flourished  the 
choice  vine  of  Eschol  I  The  one  was  righteous,  the  other 
wicked.  The  one  was  a  believer  in  the  promise,  and  a  devout 
worshiper  at  the  altar  of. Jehovah  ;  The  other  was  skeptical, 
rebellious  and  ungodly.  The  first  disagreement  in  the  world, 
the  first  strife,  the  first  death,  originated  in  a  difference  of  reli- 
gion. And  from  that  day  to  this,  the  deepest,  widest  distinction 
amongst  men,  whether  as  individuals  or  nations,  has  been  that 
which  has  marked  them  as  religious  or  irreligious.  There  is  no 
interest  on  earth  so  important  as  religion  ;  and  there  is  no  dis- 
tinction of  human  character  so  radical  and  enduring  os  that 
which  is  founded  in  religion.  "  By  faith,"  says  the  Bible,  "  Abel 
offered  unto  God  a  more  acceptable  sacrifice  than  Cain."  In 
the  one,  faith  wrought  good  works,  secured  the  favor  of  God, 
and  ended  early  in  the  bliss  of  heaven.  In  the  other,  unbelief 
and  irreligion  produced  envy,  envy  brought  forth  hatred,  and 
hatred  soon  ended  in  the  guilt  of  murder.  In  Cain  we  look 
upon  the  downward  career  of  a  young  man,  portrayed  as  in  a 
drama  of  three  acts  :  first,  the  rebellious  sinner  against  God, 
then  the  despiser  of  his  brother's  virtae,  and  at  last  the  shed- 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  2Y1 

der  of  his  brother's  blood.  Because  his  own  works  were  evil 
and  his  brother's  righteous,  he  hated  him,  and  hated  the  God 
whom  he  served  ;  and  with  nothing  to  restrain  these  vindic- 
tive and  malignant  passions,  be  soon  fell,  as  many  a  young  man 
has  since  fallen,  never  to  rise  again  ;  to  go  down,  with  the  stain 
of  blood  on  his  hands,  the  brand  of  infamy  on  his  brow,  and  the 
scowl  of  despair  upon  his  soul,  a  perpetual  proverb  and  warning 
to  posterity. 

But  in  the  brief  and  beautiful  career  of  righteous  Abel,  we 
contemplate  the  young  man  on  another  scale  ;  the  first  of  true 
believers,  the  first  of  accepted  worshipers,  and  first  on  the  roll 
of  the  noble  army  of  martyrs.  He  was  the  first  to  die  on  earth  ; 
and  he  died  on  account  of  his  superior  faith  and  virtue.  He 
fell  a  victim  and  a  sacrifice  at  the  altar  of  his  religion.  It  is 
a  significant  fact,  that  the  first  death  on  earth  was  a  death  of 
martyrdom  for  the  profession  of  religion.  But  by  that  early 
death,  and  by  his  young  and  lovely  life,  he  yet  speaketh.  By 
his  example  the  world  was  first  taught  the  grand  moral  lesson, 
that  death  may  be  more  glorious  and  blessed  than  life,  that  it 
is  better  to  die  for  virtue  than  to  live  in  sin.  "  The  living  strive, 
the  dead  alone  are  glorious  :"  and  a  dead  Abel,  speaking  from 
the  dust,  is  more  sublime  than  a  living  Cain,  wanderino-  from 
the  haunts  of  men,  and  bearing  the  curse  of  God.  If  he  was 
the  first  to  taste  death  on  earth,  thus  prematurely  cut  off  by 
the  rude  hand  of  violence,  he  also  had  the  peculiar  honor  of 
being  the  first  inhabitant  of  earth  that  ever  tasted  the  life  and 
bliss  of  heaven.  And,  doubtless,  all  the  faithful  and  good 
among  the  descendants  of  Adam  down  to  the  floood,  while  they 
deplored  his  youthful  doom,  rejoiced  in  that  entrance,  which, 
through  faitli  and  through  death,  he  had  gained  to  a  better 
paradise  than  that  which  had  been  lost  on  earth.     Well  might 


272  REPRESENTATIVE   YOUNG   MEN 

they  commemorate  his  death,  and  gather  round  his  tomb  to 
sing  his  hopeful  requiem. 

"  The  dead, 
The  only  beautiful  who  die  no  more, 
The  only  blest :  the  dwellers  on  the  shore 
Of  spring  fulfilled.     The  dead  !  whom  call  we  so  ? 
They  that   bi-eathe  purer  air,  that  feel,  that  know 
Things  wrapt  from  us." 


IV. CHARACTER    OF   JOSEPH. 

But  we  must  pass  on  ;  and,  at  a  single  bound,  we  now  cross 
a  long  interval  of  time,  from  the  antediluvian  to  the  postdilu- 
vian world.  Much  might  be  said  of  the  youth  of  Isaac  and  Ish- 
mael,  of  Esau  and  Jacob  ;  but  there  are  other  characters  more 
prominent  as  young  men.  Next  after  Abel  on  the  list  of  those, 
who,  as  young  men,  have  figured  largely  in  Bible  history,  and 
left  the  impress  of  their  character  on  mankind,  must  be  ranked 
Joseph  in  Egypt. 

His  character  indeed  is  one  of  the  noblest  in  history,  as  his 
life  was  one  of  the  most  eventful.  Of  merely  human  characters, 
his  life  presents  us  with  perhaps  the  most  admirable  and  perfect 
picture  which  can  be  found  in  all  the  Old  Testament  biography. 
In  him  we  behold  the  nearest  approximation  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment characters  ;  the  gentle,  affectionate  spirit  of  the  beloved 
disciple  seems  to  shine  forth  in  a  young  man  of  extraordinary  firm- 
ness and  decision  during  a  career  of  unusual  trials  and  hardships. 
In  all  the  wonderful  vicissitudes  and  fortunes  which  marked  his 
early  career,  as  the  favorite  son,  the  artless  dreamer,  the  envied 
brother,  the  sold  captive  and  exile,  the  falsely  accused  and  im 


OF    THE    BIBLE.  273 

prisoned  servant,  the  inspired  interpreter,  the  honored  states- 
man and  ruler  of  all  the  land  of  Egypt,  we  behold  the  same 
young  man  of  unsullied  honor,  unimpeachable  purity,  noble, 
generous  affections,  and  steadfast  devotion  to  the  God  of  his 
fathers. 

We  look  upon  his  life  as  one  of  the  most  signal  and  beautiful 
illustrations  which  the  Bible  furnishes  of  the  doctrine  of  a  spe- 
cial providence,  ever  educing  good  out  of  evil,  and  over-ruling 
the  wickedness  of  men  for  the  accomplishment  of  its  grand  de- 
signs. His  whole  history  is  doubtless  recorded  in  Scripture,  in 
its  opening  book,  for  the  purpose  of  inculcating  most  impres- 
sively the  great  truth,  that  there  is  a  God  who  governs  in  the 
afifairs  of  men  ;  that  He,  who  created  the  world,  as  recorded  in  its 
first  chapter,  and  who  governs  it,  as  evinced  by  the  account  of 
the  deluge  and  the  destruction  of  Sodom,  also  guides,  with  un- 
erring skill,  the  minutest  details  of  human  life  ;  so  that  promo- 
tion cometh  not  from  the  east,  nor  from  the  west,  nor  from  the 
south,  but  God  is  the  judge  ;  he  putteth  down  one  and  setteth 
up  another. 

'*  There's  a  Divinity  that  shapes  our  ends, 
Rough  hew  them  how  we  will." 

As  we  read  this  early  and  charming  biographical  story,  we 
seem  to  follow  a  mountain  stream,  clear  and  sparkling  as  it 
issues  from  the  fountain-head,  but  meeting  soon  with  many  ob- 
structions amid  the  rocks,  falling  over  many  rough  and  fearful 
precipices,  sometimes  almost  lost  from  view  in  deep,  dark  glens 
and  tangled  forests,  then  emerging  to  the  sunlight,  and  then 
disappearing  again  ;  so  that  no  one,  for  a  while,  can  tell  what 
direction  it  will  take  to  the  sea,  or  where  it  shall  empty,  or  how 
it  shall  find  egress  at  all  from  the  hills  and  mountains  that  en- 

12* 


274  REPRESENTATIVE   YOUNG    MEN 

viron  it ;  until,  at  last,  escaping  at  a  point  and  through  a 
channel  that  we  least  thought  of,  with  every  barrier  passed,  with 
every  obstacle  overcome,  and  as  if  fresh  with  strength  gathered 
from  all  that  had  impeded  its  progress,  it  rolls  away  across  the 
plains  of  half  a  continent,  in  one  deep,  onward,  ever-widening, 
and  irresistible  current,  to  its  home  in  the  world  of  waters. 
Such  was  the  current  of  Joseph's  life,  from  the  home  of  his 
childhood  in  the  mountains  of  Canaan,  down  to  the  day  in 
which,  as  a  revealer  of  the  future,  and  a  prophet  of  the  Most 
High,  he  was  proclaimed  prime  minister  in  the  court  of 
Pharaoh,  and  second  ruler  of  the  kingdom  of  Egypt.  The 
Scripture  narrative,  extending  through  thirteen  chapters,  is  a 
succession  of  the  most  graphic  and  thrilling  scenes,  sometimes 
possessing  the  tragic  interest  of  a  drama,  sometimes  rising  to 
the  third  heaven  of  sublimity  in  their  delineation  of  true  moral 
heroism,  often  surpassing  in  wonder  the  strangest  creations  of 
fiction  and  romance,  and  always  fraught  with  the  most  touch- 
ing pathos  that  religion,  poetry,  and  human  sympathy  can  in- 
spire. We. feel,  while  reading  it,  that  there  is  but  one  thing 
on  earth  so  beautiful  as  truth,  and  that  is  virtue. 

See  him,  first,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  doomed  to  death  by 
his  unnatural  brothers,  and,  as  it  were,  buried  alive  in  a  deep 
pit  of  the  wilderness.  What  a  picture  of  youthful  innocence 
and  virtue  suffering  wrongfully  is  that  I  What  must  have  been 
the  anguish  of  his  soul  as  he  struggled  and  begged  for  life,  and 
then  cried  for  help  to  the  God  of  his  father,  there  beneath  the 
ground  I  And  why  is  he  there  ?  He,  the  young  and  tender 
brother,  is  thrust  down,  and  left  to  perish  in  darkness  with 
starvation,  whilst  they,  the  mature,  athletic  men,  sit  down  quiet- 
ly to  enjoy  their  daily  repast,  surrounded  by  their  flocks  and 
herds,  and  green  pastures,  and  the  pleasant  light  of  the  sun.   It 


OF    THE    EIBLE.  275 

was  probably  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  world,  and  it 
ought  to  have  been  the  last,  that  a  child  was  so  treated  by 
men,  his  brothers. 

And  what  has  he  done  to  merit  sucli  a  doom  ?  By  the 
manly  beauty  of  his  person,  and  the  loveliness  of  his  child- 
like virtues,  he  has  won  too  large  a  share  in  the  affections  of 
the  venerable  patriarch,  their  father  ;  and  for  that  they  envy 
him.  In  the  honest  integrity  and  fidelity  of  his  young  heart, 
he  has  brought  to  the  patriarch  a  report  of  their  misdeeds  ; 
and  for  that  they  hate  him.  In  the  open-hearted  candor  and 
simplicity  of  his  unsuspecting  boyhood,  he  has  communicated  to 
them  all  his  wonderful  dreams  ;  and  for  that  they  conspire 
against  his  life.  At  the  command  of  his  father,  he  has  come 
away  from  home  on  a  mission  of  filial  and  fraternal  love,  to  see 
if  it  is  well  with  his  brothers  and  their  flocks  ;  and  now  they 
seize  the  opportunity  to  kill  him,  and  see  what  will  become  of 
his  dreams.  And  but  for  Reuben,  death  would  have  closed  the 
scene  at  once.  At  his  suggestion,  deterred  from  staining  their 
bands  with  a  brother's  blood,  they  put  him  in  a  pit  to  die — 
all,  except  Reuben  who  had  better  thoughts,  consenting  in  their 
hearts  to  the  deed,  and  satisfied,  that,  whatever  may  become 
of  him,  they  have  at  least  defeated  his  dreams. 

And  now  the  scene  changes.  God,  who  has  great  and  won- 
derful ends  to  accomplish  on  earth  by  this  earth-imprisoned 
child,  in  his  providence,  has  sent  along  a  caravan  of  Arahian 
merchantmen,  on  their  way  to  Egypt,  who  arrive  at  the  SDot 
just  in  time  to  save  him,  either  from  death  in  the  cave  or  from 
that  deliverance  which  the  eldest  brother  was  meditating. 
Reuben,  with  his  good  intentions,  is  now  away  ;  and  Judah, 
partly  relenting  with  natural  pity  for  a  brother  of  his  own  flesh, 
and  partly  urged  by  a  conscience  which  could  not  feci   quite 


276  REPKESENTATIVE    YOUNG   MEN 

guiltless  of  blood,  though  noue  had  been  shed,  proposes  to  take 
him  out  and  sell  him.  And  thus,  because  it  was  no  profit  to 
slaj  their  brother  and  conceal  his  blood,  avarice  takes  the  place 
which  had  been  occupied  by  malice  and  murder  ;  and  so,  com- 
promising the  matter  between  their  conscience  and  their  crime, 
as  far  as  they  could,  they  conclude  to  sell  him  as  a  slave  for 
twenty  pieces  of  silver,  little  dreaming  that  all  these  sinful 
efforts  to  defeat  the  dreams  of  the  boy,  and  thwart  the  pur- 
poses of  heaven,  would  be  the  very  means  of  fulfilling  them. 

Again  the  scene  changes  ;  from  the  hill  country  of  Canaan, 
to  the  distant  land  of  Egypt  ;  from  a  shepherd's  tent  and  a 
solitary  cavern,  to  a  crowded  city,  and  capital,  and  court,  of 
the  greatest  kingdom  of  the  times.  A  captive  and  an  exile, 
this  seed  of  Abraham,  this  great-grandson  of  the  "  Friend  of 
God,"  is  carried  down  into  Egypt  and  again  sold  as  a  servant 
to  Potiphar,  an  ofiicer  of  Pharaoh  and  captain  of  the  guard. 
But,  by  the  special  blessing  of  heaven  and  his  own  good  con- 
duct, he  soon  finds  favor  in  the  eyes  of  his  new  master.  He  is 
promoted  to  be  overseer  of  all  his  house.  The  sacred  narrative 
tells  us,  in  this  connection,  that  Joseph  was,  "  a  goodly  person 
and  well  favored."  Youth  has  now  put  on  the  strength  of  man- 
hood. The  tender,  beautiful  boy,  whom  a  fond  father  once 
loved  too  well,  and  whose  loss  he  can  never  forget,  has  now  rip- 
ened into  a  full  grown,  active,  noble  young  man.  The  servant 
has  become  the  trusted  and  honored  ruler  of  all  his  owner^s 
household.  And,  after  some  eight  or  ten  weary  years  of  cap- 
tivity and  exile.  Divine  Providence  seems  now,  at  last,  about  to 
make  compensation  to  Joseph  for  all  the  hardships  he  had  suf- 
fered ;  when,  suddenly,  the  scene  changes  again. 

In  a  moment  all  seems  to  be  lost — forever  lost.  All  his  bright 
prospects  are  blasted.     His  good  name  is  cast  out  as  evil,  his 


OF   THE   BIBLE. 


277 


reputation  gone.  The  rising  sun  of  his  good  fortune  in  Egjpt 
is  suddenly  and  disastrously  eclipsed.  He  is  a  slave,  he  is  a 
prisoner,  he  is  now  treated  as  a  criminal,  he  is  imraured  in  a 
dungeon  ;  it  may  be  for  life  or  it  may  be  for  an  early  death. 
It  was  in  fact,  for  more  than  two  years.  And  why  is  he  there  ? 
He  is  there  through  the  vengeance  of  a  woman — one  whose 
base  wickedness  had  been  baffled,  disappointed,  and  put  to 
shame,  by  his  own  inflexible  virtue.  He  is  there  falsely  ac- 
cused of  the  very  crime  which  he  bad  manfully  and  heroically 
resisted  from  first  to  last.  He  is  there  to  satisfy  the  wrath  of 
Potiphar's  wife,  who,  to  treachery,  and  falsehood,  and  slander, 
and  the  infamous  sin  which  she  wished  him  to  commit,  added 
the  cruelty  and  injustice  of  suffering  an  innocent  man  to  lan- 
guish for  years  in  the  state  prison  of  Egypt  on  her  account. 
AYe  can  find  bloodier  women  in  Scripture,  but  it  would  be  hard 
to  find  a  meaner  one  than  this. 

But  in  Joseph,  at  the  point  to  which  we  have  now  traced 
him,  we  behold  the  young  man  in  his  most  illustrious  character 
— that  of  conqueror,  that  of  self-conqueror.  We  behold  him  as 
a  sufferer  ;  but  the  character  of  a  true  moral  hero  shines  out 
through  all  his  sufferings,  like  the  sun  between  the  clouds  in  a 
day  of  rain.  He  had  illustrated  the  proverb  before  it  was  writ- 
ten, "  He  that  ruleth  his  spirit  is  better  than  he  that  taketh  a 
city."  His  virtue  had  been  assailed  from  day  to  day  by  all  that 
was  fascinating  in  the  siren  song  of  sensuality,  and  by  all 
that  was  powerful  and  seductive  in  the  persevering  energy  of 
an  unprincipled  woman.  But,  strong  in  the  fear  of  God,  and 
in  the  conscious  purity  of  his  own  heart  and  life,  he  repelled 
the  tempter  with  the  simple  and  sublime  declaration,  "  How 
can  I  do  this  great  wickedness,  and  sin  against  God  ?''  He 
might  have  yielded  to  the  tempter,  as  too  many  have  done,  plead- 


278  •         REPRESENTATIVE   YOUNG    MEN 

ing  necessity  and  the  force  of  circumstances.  He  might  have 
concealed  the  sin,  saying,  in  his  heart,  there  is  no  human  eye 
to  penetrate  the  darkness  and  discover  the  crime,  and,  there- 
fore, no  great  harm  can  result  from  it.  But  it  was  enough  for  him, 
that  it  was  a  violation  of  the  ordinance  of  God  ;  enough  for 
him,  that  there  was  an  all-seeing  eye  in  heaven,  in  whose*  sight 
the  darkness  shineth  as  the  light.  He  stood  upon  that  rock 
of  truth,  "  Thou  God  seest  me,"  upon  which,  if  a  young  man 
stand,  he  shall  be  unmoved  amid  all  the  blandishments  of 
sensuality,  and  all  the  machinations  of  the  devil. 

It  was  a  sublime  moral  triumph  of  reason  over  appetite,  a 
conquest  of  piety  over  passion,  a  victory  of  virtue  over  vice. 
We  see  the  young  Hebrew,  under  the  most  trying  circumstan- 
ces, holding  fast  the  faith  of  Abraham,  successfully  vanquish- 
ing the  greatest  temptation  of  youth,  and  becoming  a  model  to 
the  young  men  of  all  subsequent  ages.  And  what  though,  in 
his  prison-house,  the  world  may  think  him  fallen  ?  He  has 
fallen,  only  as  the  martyr  of  truth  and  virtue  falls,  to  rise  again. 

"  Truth  crushed  to  earth  shall  rise  again, 
The  eternal  years  of  God  are  hers." 

Several  years  now  roll  away,  when  the  scene  changes  more 
strangely  than  ever  before.  The  young  Hebrew  has  found 
friends,  and  has  enjoyed  the  blessing  of  God  during  all  the 
years  of  his  imprisonment.  But  now  he  is  brought  out  from 
his  prison-house,  called  in  haste  by  a  mandate  from  the  throne. 
At  the  age  of  thirty  years  he  stands  before  Pharaoh.  Know- 
ing the  purpose  for  which  he  was  summoned  there,  we  can  very 
easily  imagine  the  keen  eye  of  scrutiny  with  which  he  is  received 
by  the  monarch,  and  the  look  of  proud  contempt  and  incredu- 
lity with  which  he  is  regarded  by  all  the  hoary- headed  magi- 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  279 

Clans  and  philos(^phcrs  of  Egypt.  We  can  well  imagine,  too, 
that,  though  a  stranger  and  a  prisoner,  he  stands  there  self- 
possessed  and  unintimidated  ;  because  we  know  he  stands  not 
only  in  the  confidence  of  an  innocent  man,  but  in  the  strength 
of  a  wisdom  derived  from  heaven.  It  is  a  glorious  and  trium- 
phant position  which  he  now  occupies — that  of  superior  know- 
ledge, that  of  instructor  to  the  king.  It  is,  perhaps  the  ear 
liest  signal  illustration,  which  history  gives  us,  of  our  modern 
maxim  "Knowledge  is  power."  It  was  certainly  on  this  occa- 
sion the  greatest  power  in  Egypt.  A  poor  unknown  prisoner 
comes  into  that  august  presence  of  king  and  counsellors  to  re- 
veal the  future  ;  by  the  interpretation  of  a  dream  to  make 
kcown  the  decrees  of  heaven  ;  and,  by  his  supernatural  wisdom 
alone,  he  goes  out  an  acknowledged  prophet  of  the  Most  High, 
publicly  declared  to  be  a  saviour  and  a  ruler  of  all  the  land  of 
Egypt. 

Can  the  annals  of  history  or  romance  afford  a  more  remark- 
able example  of  sudden  exaltation  and  triumph  than  this  ? 
Out  of  the  Bible  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  scene  on  record 
combining  more  of  the  elements  of  moral  beauty  and  sublimity, 
than  this  appearance  of  Joseph  before  Pharaoh.  How  has 
God  himself  here  vindicated  the  cause  of  suffering,  down-trod- 
den virtue,  in  the  person  of  his  young  servant  !  Yesterday,  in 
all  the  laud  of  Egypt,  outside  of  the  prison  walls,  there  was 
none  so  poor  as  to  do  him  reverence.  To-day,  a  grateful  nation 
at  the  bidding  of  their  king,  are  ready  to  bow  the  knee  be- 
fore him.  To-day  he  hears,  and  all  Egypt  hears,  this  new  and 
marvellous  decree  from  the  throne  :  "  Forasmuch  as  God  hath 
showed  thcQ  all  this,  there  is  none  so  discreet  and  wise  as  thou 
art :  Thou  shalt  be  over  my  house,  and  according  unto  thy 
word  shall  my  people  be  ruled  ;  only  in  the  throne  will  I  be 


280  REPRESENTATIVE   YOUNG   MEN 

greater  than  thou.  See,  I  have  set  thee  over  all  the  land  of 
Egypt.  And  Pharaoh  took  off  his  ring  from  his  hand,  and  put 
it  upon  Joseph's  hand,  and  arrayed  him  in  vestures  of  fine  lin- 
en, and  put  a  gold  chain  about  his  neck  ;  and  he  made  him  to 
ride  in  the  second  chariot  which  he  had  :  and  they  cried  before 
him,  Bow  the  knee  :  and  he  made  him  ruler  over  all  the  land 
of  Egypt.  And  Pharaoh  said  unto  Joseph,  I  am  Pharaoh,  and 
without  thee  shall  no  man  lift  up  his  hand  or  foot  in  all  the 
land  of  Egypt." 

Beautifully  has  the  Psalmist  celebrated  this  exaltation  of 
the  seed  of  Jacob  : 

*'  The  king  sent  and  loosed  him  ; 
Even  the  ruler  of  the  people,  and  let  him  go  free. 
He  made  him  lord  of  his  honse, 
And  ruler  of  all  his  substance, 
To  bind  his  princes  at  his  pleasure, 
And  teach  his  senators  wisdom." 

We  need  not  follow  him  farther,  though  his  subsequent  his- 
tory is  full  of  interesting  and  affecting  scenes.  Seven  or 
eight  years  later,  when  the  famine  set  in,  we  should  find  him 
holding  strange  interviews  with  those  brethren  who  had  sold 
him  into  bondage,  and  realizing  to  the  full  the  prophetic 
dreams  of  his  childhood.  And  still  farther  on,  when  near  the 
age  of  forty,  and  a  father  then  himself,  we  should  see  him 
meeting  and  embracing  the  venerable  patriarch,  who  had  so 
long  mourned  over  the  supposed  tragic  fate  of  his  favorite 
son,  and  whose  aged  heart  had  fainted  for  joy  when  he 
heard  the  news  from  Egypt,  but  revived  when  he  saw  the 
proofs  of  it,  saying,  it  is  enough  ;  Joseph  is  yet  alive,  and  I  will 
go  and  see  him  before  I  die."     Seventeen  years  later  still,  we 


OF   THE    BIBLE.  281 

should  behold  him,  with  his  children  and  his  brethren,  receiving 
the  dying  benedict'ons  of  the  patriarch,  and  then  going  up 
into  Canaan  to  lay  his  mortal  remains  in  the  cave  Machpelah, 
the  burial-place  of  Abraham,  And,  last  of  all,  we.  should  see 
his  great  and  unceasing  kindness  to  his  brethren,  and  hear  his 
own  dying  prophecy  and  request  for  burial  in  the  land  of  his 
fathers. 

But  it  is  enough  for  us  to  have  traced  his  career  as  a  young 
man.  The  glory  of  his  youthful  character  was  the  decision 
with  which  he  adhered,  through  all  temptation,  to  the  religion 
of  Jehovah.  For  twenty  years  he  stood  alone  in  the  dark  re- 
gions of  idolatry,  the  faithful  worshiper  of  the  God  of  Abraham. 
In  the  prison  and  in  the  palace  alike,  in  his  boyhood  and  in  his 
manly  prime,  in  his  private  chamber,  where  no  human  eye 
could  see  him,  and  under  the  full  gaze  of  Egypt's  royal  court 
and  people ,  he  remained  firm  in  his  integrity  and  true  to  the 
faith  of  his  fathers.  He  stood  alone  in  Egypt,  not  unlike  Mil- 
ton's seraph,  Abdiel,  among  the  apostate  angels  : 

"Faithful  found 
Among  the  faithless,  faithful  only  he  ; 
Among  innumerable  false  unmoved, 
Unshaken,  unseduced,  unterrified, 
His  love  he  kept,  his  loyalty,  his  zeal : 
Nor  number  nor  example  with  him  wrought 
To  swerve  from  truth  or  change  Lis  constant  mind, 
Though  single." 


282  REPRESENTATIVE   YOTJNG   MEN 


V. — ^THE    YOUTH    OF   MOSES. 

Next  on  the  roll  of  illustrious  young  men,  whose  virtues  and 
achievements  adorn  the  biographical  annals  of  the  Bible,  wc 
take  the  example  of  Moses.  His  life,  of  a  hundred  and  twenty- 
years,  is  naturally  divided  into  three  great  periods  of  equal 
length.  The  first  forty  years  may  be  called  the  period  of  his 
youth,  all  being  spent  in  Egypt  ;  the  next  forty  years,  passed 
in  Midian,  made  up  the  period  of  middle  age  ;  and  the  third 
forty,  in  the  wilderness,  we  may  name  the  period  of  his  old  age. 
Strictly  speaking,  however,  he  had  no  old  age  in  the  ordinary 
sense  ;  for  when  he  died,  at  one  hundred  and  twenty,  his  eye 
was  not  dim,  nor  his  natural  force  abated. 

If  we  should  comprehend,  under  our  present  view,  the  whole 
life  of  Moses,  and  measure  it  by  the  extent  of  its  influence  upon 
mankind,  we  could  find  no  superior  in  the  annals  of  time,  and, 
perhaps,  but  one  equal — that  of  the  apostle  Paul.  As  an 
author,  he  is  not  only  the  earliest  of  historians,  but  by  far  the 
most  voluminous  of  the  sacred  writers.  As  an  inspired  prophet, 
his  communications  with  God  were  more  direct  and  wonderful, 
than  those  of  any  other  prophet  mentioned  in  the  Bible.  As  a 
sacred  bard,  his  song  of  triumph  at  the  Red  Sea,  his  farewell 
address  to  Israel,  and  his  Psalm,  the  ninetieth,  give  him  a  rank 
amongst  the  most  gifted  poetic  geniuses  that  have  adorned  the 
walks  of  sacred  literature.  As  a  law-giver  and  the  founder 
of  an  empire,  whether  we  consider  the  nature  or  the  duration 
of  the  institutions  he  established,  he  stands  above  Solon  or 
Lycurgus,  Numa  Pompilius  or  Augustus,  Mohammed  or  Confu- 
cius, Alfred  the  Great  or  Napoleon.  Though  the  sceptre  of 
empire  has  long  since  crumbled  in  the  dust,  his  laws  and  insti- 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  283 

tations  still  live  all  over  Christenclom — the  oldest  and  most  in- 
destructible in  the  world.  As  a  military  chief  and  ruler  of 
men,  his  forty  years'  march  through  the  wilderness,  at  the  head 
of  some  two  or  three  millions  of  people,  displays  more  execu- 
tive talent,  generalship,  and  daring,  than  all  the  campaigns  of 
Julius  Caesar,  or  the  expeditions  of  Alexander  the  Great,  or 
the  celebrated  retreat  of  the  ten  thousand  under  Xenophon,  so 
beautifully  told  in  the  Anabasis.  Indeed,  for  the  awful  gran- 
deur of  his  character  as  an  inspired  teacher,  for  the  duration  of 
his  institutions,  for  the  versatility  of  his  genius,  for  the  extent 
of  his  achievements  while  living,  and  the  influence  he  exerted 
on  the  world  when  dead,  Moses  has  no  compeer  in  history, 
and  none  in  the  Bible,  except  the  Great  Apostle  of  the  gentiles. 

But  it  is  not  of  the  deeds  of  his  meridian  life,  nor  of  the  won- 
derful events  of  his  advanced  age,  that  we  are  now  to  speak. 
It  is  in  his  character  and  accomplisments  as  a  young  man  only, 
that  we  are  now  to  contemplate  him.  It  was  by  the  discipline 
of  his  youth,  that  heaven  prepared  him  for  his  subsequent  career 
of  glory.  Xo  human  life  ever  had  three  great  periods  more 
distinctly  marked,  and  more  unlike  each  other,  than  his.  But 
we  should  fail  to  learn  one  of  its  greatest  lessons,  if  we  did  not 
perceive,  how  the  first  period  schooled  him  for  the  second,  and 
how  the  second  equipped  him  for  the  third.  The  child  is  to 
the  man  what  the  man  is  to  the  immortal.  And  the  Moses  of 
four-score  or  of  six-score  years  would  not  have  been  what  he  was 
to  Israel  and  to  the  world,  had  the  Moses  of  twenty  and 
thirty  years  been  a  different  young  man  from  what  wc  find 
him. 

AVe  pass  over  all  those  peculiar  circumstances,  that  attended 
the  infancy  of  this  beautiful  child  of  the  ark  and  the  waters,  to 
fix  our  attention  upon  three  prominent  facts,  gathered  from  the 


^84  EEPRESENTATIVE   TOUNG   MEN 

sacred  narrative,  which  determined  the  character  of  Moses,  and 
stamped  the  seal  of  immortality  upon  his  youth. 

The  first  is,  that  while  educated  by  his  own  pious  Hebrew 
mother  in  the  faith  of  his  fathers,  he  was  also  educated  in  the 
court  of  Pharaoh,  being  adopted  by  the  king's  daughter  as  her 
son  ;  and,  as  such,  there  was  before  him  every  prospect  of 
power  and  glory  which  the  monarchy  of  Egypt  could  hold  out  to 
the  aspirations  of  a  young  man.  The  Scriptures  speak  of  him 
as  having  the  treasures  and  the  pleasures  of  Egypt  at  his  com- 
mand. The  inference  is  almost  inevitable,  that  he  was,  or 
would  become,  heir  apparent  to  the  throne.  Be  that,  however, 
as  it  may,  all  Egypt  was  before  him,  even  if  the  throne  was 
not  ;  the  memorable  example  of  Joseph's  exaltation,  power,  and 
glory  was  before  him ;  and  as  the  adopted  son  of  Pharaoh's 
daughter,  it  is  natural  to  believe,  that  he  had  enjoyed  greater 
advantages  for  a  career  of  honor  and  usefulness  than  any  young 
man  of  his  day. 

The  second  fact  is,  that  he  had  diligently  improved  these  ad- 
vantages. We  are  told,  that  he  was  "  learned  in  all  the  wis- 
dom of  the  Egyptians,  and  was  mighty  in  words  and  in  deeds." 

His  education  had  been  most  complete  and  thorough.  A 
perfect  master  of  the  language  and  learning,  both  of  the 
Egyptians  and  Hebrews,  he  was  at  once,  by  his  double  know- 
ledge, equal  to  two  ordinary  men.  For  it  may  be  laid  down  as 
a  general  rule,  which  has  always  held  good,  that  a  young  man 
re-duplicates  his  power  and  influence  with  each  new  language 
and  literature  that  he  masters.  In  the  full  possession  of  all 
that  influence  which  springs  from  social  rank,  and  conscious  of 
all  that  power  which  comes  from  a  mind  full  of  knowledge, 
Moses,  it  seems,  had  already  distinguished  himself  as  a  young 
man  by  his   mighty  deeds,  and  had  formed  the  purpose  of 


OF    rHE   BIBLE.  285 

achieving  some  great  work  of  deliverance  for  his  countrymen 
as  a  prince  and  a  judge  over  them. 

But  the  third  fact  which  distingushed  and  immortalized 
Moses,  even  while  ^  young  man,  was  his  remarkable  self-denial, 
his  noble  choice,  his  triumph  of  faith  over  ambition  and  worldly 
glory.  With  all  his  stores  of  wisdom  and  all  his  bright 
visions  of  worldly  grandeur,  he  voluntarily  resigned  and 
renounced  his  position  in  the  court,  and,  as  Josephus  tell  us, 
his  office  as  chief  of  the  armies  of  Egypt,  and  took  his  portion 
for  time  and  eternity  with  the  afflicted  people  of  God.  This  is 
the  one  act  of  heroic  faith  and  patriotic  self-sacrifice,  which 
the  sacred  writers  have  delighted  to  celebrate  as  the  most  illus- 
trious act  of  his  life.  And  this  was  the  act  of  his  youth — 
faith's  early  choice,  faith's  manly  triumph.  It  takes  genius  to 
appreciate  genius  ;  and  faith  alone  can  understand  and  appre- 
ciate faith.  So  we  find  the  greatest  of  apostles,  doubtless 
moved  by  the  appreciating  sympathy  of  a  like  faith  and  a  like 
character,  celebrating  this  act  of  the  greatest  of  prophets  in  the 
following  terms  :  "  By  faith  Moses,  when  he  was  come  to  years, 
refused  to  be  called  the  son  of  Pharaoh's  daughter  ;  choosing 
rather  to  suffer  affliction  with  the  people  of  God,  than  to  enjoy 
the  pleasures  of  sin  for  a  season  ;  esteeming  the  reproach  of 
Christ  greater  riches  than  the  treasures  of  Egypt  :  for  he  had 
respect  unto  the  recompense  of  reward.  By  faith  he  forsook 
Egypt,  not  fearing  the  wrath  of  the  king  :  for  he  endured  as 
seeing  him  who  is  invisible." 

This  sublime  triumph  of  the  unseen  and  eternal  over  all  that 
was  seen  and  temporal,  was  the  turning  point  of  his  destiny,  the 
decisive  and  irreversible  passing  of  the  Rubicon  ;  but  a  passage 
altogether  different,  in  its  nature  and  results,  from  that  which 
sealed  the  destiny  of  Caesar.    Moses  gave  up  all  for  conscience's 


286  REPRESENTATIVE   YOUNG   MEN 

sake,  wealth,  power,  pleasure  and  fame  ;  but,  by  the  sacrifice, 
he  won  all — immortality  on  earth  and  glory  in  the  heavens. 
Had  he  staid  in  Egypt,  and  become  its  monarch,  mankind 
would  probably  have  known  and  cared  as  little  about  him  as 
they  now  know  or  care  about  the  Pharaohs. 

We  have  seen  men,  like  Napoleon,  after  braving  the  sum- 
mer's heat  and  winter's  cold,  after  scaling  Alps  and  Apennines, 
after  wading  through  seas  of  blood  to  grasp  the  crown  of 
empire,  at  last  losing  all  and  dying  in  exile.  We  have  seen 
others,  like  Cliaries  V.,  or  the  late  emperor  of  Austria,  unre- 
compensed  by  all  their  wealth  and  royalty,  and  wearied  out 
with  the  cares  of  state,  in  their  old  age  abdicating  a  throne 
which  they  could  no  longer  fill  with  credit  or  comfort,  and 
resigning  the  sceptre  to  their  feeble  and  unworthy  sons.  But, 
in  all  the  annals  of  the  world's  great  men,  we  have  found  no 
young  man,  like  Moses,  endowed  with  genius,  rich  in  learning, 
and  conscious  of  ability,  voluntarily  relinquishing  such  a  crown, 
as  that  which  lay  within  his  reach,  for  such  a  recompense  as 
that  he  chose  ;  and  all  at  the  period  of  life  when  hope  and  en- 
thusiasm were  beating  at  the  full.  We  have  found  many  simi- 
lar examples,  ever  since  the  days  of  Paul,  in  the  annals  of  the 
Christian  church,  in  the  ranks  of  its  ministry  and  its  mission- 
aries, ancient  and  modern  ;  but  they  have  all  been  men  imbued 
with  the  same  spirit  and  faith  that  governed  Moses.  By  this 
faith  and  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  for  conscience'  sake,  he  stood 
upon  a  height  of  moral  heroism  and  glory  far  above  the  kings 
and  conquerors  of  this  world — a  height  which  no  young  man 
of  Greece,  of  Macedon,  or  of  Rome,  ever  attained — a  height 
to  which  no  power  on  earth  can  ever  raise  our  fallen  human 
nature,  except  that  Divine  power  which  comes  from  the  princi- 
ples of  the  Bible.     Would  you  stand  where  Moses  stood,  and 


OF   THE    BIBLE.  287 

reap  the  same  recompense  of  reward  ?  Thtn  fling  away  ambi 
tion,  fling  away  selfishness,  be  willing  to  lose  all  for  Christ  and 
conscience's  sake,  even  life  itself,  and  you  shall  not  lose  your 
reward. 

VI. SKETCH    OF   DAVID   AND   JONATHAN. 

Leaving  Moses,  we  now  cross  another  wide  interval  in  the 
Bible  biography  of  young  men.  The  time  would  fail  us  to 
speak  of  the  youth  of  Caleb  and  Joshua,  Jephthah  and  Gideon, 
Barak  and  Samson,  although  the  youth  of  some  of  them  was 
highly  distinguished.  But,  passing  over  these,  let  us  fix  our 
attention  upon  two  notable  young  men,  who  were  contem- 
poraries and  companions  in  arms,  and  whose  deeds  of  courage, 
prowess,  and  patriotism,  adorned  the  long,  eventful  reign  of 
Saul.     They  are  David  and  Jonathan. 

In  them  we  behold  the  young  mau  on  a  new  field  of  action, 
and  in  a  new  character — that  of  the  patriot-soldier  and  mili- 
tary hero.  The  relation  which  existed  between  these  two 
young  soldiers  was  peculiar  and  remarkable.  No  tie  of  con- 
sanguinity bound  them.  But  a  tie,  woven  of  the  strong  cords 
of  sympathy,  similarity  of  character,  and  admiration  for  each 
other's  heroic  deeds,  had  bound  their  hearts  in  a  covenant  of 
affection,  and  a  brotherhood  of  mutual  interest,  stronger  than 
the  love  of  woman,  and  superior  to  all  the  calls  of  selfishness 
and  ambition.  Under  the  circumstances  in  which  they  stood  to 
each  other  and  to  the  kingdom,  this  friendship  was  as  honora- 
ble as  it  was  extraordinary.  For  Jonathan,  as  eldest  son  of 
Saul,  was  heir  apparent  to  the  throne  ;  whilst  David,  already 
anointed  as  king  by  Samuel,  was  claimant  of  that  throne  by 
Divine  appointment.     Yet  they  seem  never  to  have  thought  of 


288  EEPRESENTATIVE   YOUNG    MEN 

each  other  as  rivals.  Nothing  could  more  illustrate  the  piety 
and  self-sacrificing  spirit  of  Jonathan,  than  his  devotion  to 
the  interests  of  his  father  on  the  one  hand,  and  his  devotion  to 
the  welfare  of  his  friend  on  the  other.  He  stood  between 
them  as  a  mediator  and  a  preserver  ;  although,  in  the  view  of 
this  world's  policy,  he  had  everything  to  lose,  personally,  by 
that  mediation.  But  whilst  fighting  for  his  father  against  the 
enemies  of  Israel,  and  at  last  dying  by  his  side  in  battle,  so  far 
from  having  any  feelings  of  envy  or  ambition  towards  David, 
he  desired  only  to  see  him  on  the  throne,  and  to  occupy  a 
place  next  to  him  in  the  kingdom. 

Noble,  magnanimous,  generous  young  man  I  the  soul  of  honor, 
the  pride  of  thy  country  ;  the  living  name  for  valor,  patriotism, 
and  chivalry  ;  the  impersonation  of  every  manly  and  every 
princely  virtue  !  And,  in  all  these  rare  and  lofty  attributes  of 
character,  David,  while  a  young  man,  was  not  only  a  sharer, 
but  an  equal.  We  scarcely  know  which  to  admire  most — the 
disinterested  generosity  of  Jonathan  in  seeking  the  exaltation 
of  David,  or  the  moderation  and  magnanimity  of  David  in 
repeatedly  sparing  the  life  of  his  persecutor,  Saul,  when  he 
might  have  cut  him  off  at  a  blow,  and  quietly  ascended  the 
throne. 

Each  of  these  young  men  had,  at  an  early  period  of  life, 
performed  a  feat  of  daring  valor  for  the  deliverance  of  their 
country,  from  which  the  mightiest  champions  of  Israel  had 
shrunk  ;  and  which  at  once  established  their  fame  as  warriors 
amongst  the  veterans  of  the  camp,  and  endeared  their  names 
to  the  people  from  Dan  to  Beersheba.  Jonathan,  with  his 
armor-bearer  as  his  sole  companion,  had  stormed  the  powerful, 
and,  as  it  was  supposed,  impregnable  Philistine  garrison  at 
Michmash,  which  resulted  in  the  overthrow  of  the  whole  iuvad- 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  289 

ing  army,  and  the  deliverance  of  Israel  from  their  oppressors, 
David,  too,  alone  and  but  a  stripling,  on  another  occasion,  had 
met  and  vanquished,  in  the  face  of  the  two  hostile  camps,  the 
proud  champion  of  Gath,  who  had,  from  day  to  day,  defied  the 
armies  of  the  living  God.  By  these  unparalleled  deeds,  the 
two  young  patriot-volunteers  had  won  the  hearts  of  all  their 
countrymen,  and  won  each  other's  ardent  love  for  life. 

Now  the  whole  world  has  rung  with  the  renown  of  the  cele- 
brated defence  of  Leonidas  and  his  band,  at  the  pass  of  Ther- 
mopylae, which  saved  Greece  from  the  Persian  yoke  ;  rung  with 
reports  of  the  daring  deeds  of  Mexander  and  Caesar,  of  the 
personal  courage  of  Napoleon  and  his  marshals  on  many  a  hard- 
fought  field  ;  rung  too,  with  well-merited  eclat,  for  the  gallan- 
try and  heroism  of  Nelson,  of  Decatur,  of  Lawrence  and  Perry, 
on  the  seas  ;  but  we  venture  to  say,  that  you  cannot  find,  in 
any  one  of  these,  or  in  any  other,  more  of  the  essential  charac- 
teristics of  personal  bravery,  of  daring  purpose,  of  sublime  self- 
immolation  on  the  altar  of  the  public  good,  more  of  all  those 
elements,  "  the  bold  endeavor  and  the  high  emprise,  the  strength 
to  suffer  and  the  will  to  serve,"  which  go  to  make  up  a  real 
hero,  than  are  to  be  found  in  these  two  exploits  of  the  son  of 
Jesse  and  the  heir  of  Saul. 

By  their  gallantry  on  these  two  memorable  occasions,  they 
crushed  the  power  of  the  invader,  inspired  the  armies  of  Israel 
with  fresh  enthusiasm,  and  the  whole  nation  with  gratitude 
and  joy.  So  that  the  veteran  soldiers  of  the  camp  vied  with 
the  daughters  of  Israel  in  doing  honor  to  the  heroic  young  men, 
who  had  thus,  in  the  hands  of  Jehovah,  become  the  deliverers 
of  their  common  country. 

In  the  case  of  Jonathan,  so  great  a  favorite  was  he  with  the 
victorious  army,  that,  when  he  was  doomed  to  die  because  of 

13 


290  EEPEESENTATIVE   YOUNG   MEl? 

a  VOW  which  his  father  had  rashly  made  in  the  heat  of  battle, 
we  are  told  :  "  The  people  interposed,  saying  to  Saul,  '  Shall 
Jonathan  die  who  hath  wrought  this  great  salvation  in  Israel  ? 
God  forbid.  As  the  Lord  liveth,  there  shall  not  one  hair  of  his 
head  fall  to  the  ground  ;  for  he  hath  wrought  with  God  this 
day.'  So  the  people  rescued  Jonathan  that  he  died  not."  In 
the  case  of  David,  when  returning  in  triumph  from  the  slaughter 
of  the  Philistines,  so  high  did  the  martial  enthusiasm  of  the 
people  run,  on  account  of  the  great  victory  whose  first  blow  had 
been  struck  by  the  stone  and  sling  of  the  shepherd  boy,  that 
we  are  told  :  "  The  women  came  out  of  all  the  cities  of  Israel 
singing  and  dancing,  to  meet  king  Saul,  with  tabrets,  with  joy, 
and  with  instruments  of  music.  And  the  women  answered 
one  another  as  they  played  and  said,  '  Saul  hath  slain  his  thou- 
sands, and  David  his  ten  thousands.' " 

How  must  the  pious,  patriotic  hearts  of  these  young  chief- 
tains, companions  in  danger  and  now  in  triumph,  have  swelled 
with  thanksgiving  to  God  and  visions  of  coming  glory,  when, 
returning  from  the  war,  they  first  caught  the  notes  of  high  and 
holy  hallelujahs  to  Jehovah,  wafted  upon  the  evening  breeze 
from  all  the  band  of  Israel's  daughters,  and  then  wafted  back 
again  from  all  the  echoing  hills  and  waters,  perhaps  in  the  very 
words,  forever  memorable,  of  Miriam  and  her  sisters  at  the  Red 
Sea,  *'  Sing  ye  to  the  Lord,  for  he  hath  triumphed  gloriously." 
It  requires  no  stretch  of  fancy  to  mingle  with  them  there,  on 
their  long  and  winding  way,  now  toiling  up  the  hill  at  the  head 
of  their  war-worn  veterans,  all  covered  with  dust,  and  laden  with 
the  spoils  of  victory  ;  and  now  reaching  the  summit  which 
marks  the  boundary  of  home,  whence  may  be  heard,  amid  waving 
palms  and  banners,  from  ten  thousand  glad  voices  of  mother, 
sister,  and  wife,  the  spirit-stirring  words  of  that  sublime  chorus  : 


OF    THE    BIBLE.  291 

"  Strike  the  cymbal,  roll  the  timbrel, 
Battle  is  the  Lord's  alone." 

"Spread  your  biiimers,  shout  hosannas, 
Israel's  God  is  Lord  alone." 

We  must,  however,  leave  David  and  Jonathan.  As  models 
of  what  a  patriot-soldier  and  hero  ought  to  be,  they  had  no 
equals  in  that  age,  and  they  have  had  no  superiors  in  any.  As 
such,  they  are  w^orthy  to  be  studied  and  imitated  by  our  youth. 
Jonathan,  while  yet  a  young  man,  fell  in  defence  of  his  country, 
as  already  stated,  at  his  father's  side,  in  the  fatal  conflict  of 
Mount  Gilboa.  When  the  sad  tidings  of  his  death  reached  Da- 
vid, in  a  distant  part  of  the  land,  the  young  minstrel  and 
brother-warrior  touched  his  harp  in  sweet  and  mournful  strains, 
and  sung  a  requiem  to  the  memory  of  his  early  and  faithful 
friend  in  the  celebrated  lamentation  : 

"  The  beauty  of  Israel  is  slain  upon  thy  high  places  ; 
How  are  the  mighty  fallen  ! 
Tell  it  not  in  Gath. 

Publish  it  not  in  the  streets  of  Askelon ; 
Lest  the  daughters  of  the  Phihstines  rejoice, 
Lest  the  daughters  of  the  uncircumcised  triumph. 

"  Ye  mountains  of  Gilboa !  let  there  be  no  dew, 
Neither  let  there  be  rain  upon  you,  nor  fields  of  offerings  ; 
For  there  the  shield  of  the  mighty  is  vilely  cast  away. 
The  shield  of  Saul,  as  of  one  unanointed  with  oil. 
From  the  blood  of  the  slain. 
From  the  fat  of  the  mighty. 
The  bow  of  Jonathan  turned  not  back, 
And  the  sword  of  Saul  returned  not  empty. 
Saul  and  Jonathan  were  lovely  and  pleasant  in  their  livM, 
And  in  their  death  they  were  not  divided : 
They  were  swifter  than  eagles, 
They  were  stronger  than  lions. 


REPRESENTATIVE   YOUNG    MEN 

"  Ye  daughters  of  Israel !  weep  over  Saul. 
Who  clothed  you  in  scarlet  with  other  delights, 
Who  put  on  ornaments  of  gold  upon  your  appareL 
How  are  the  mighty  fallen  in  the  midst  of  battle  ! 

0  Jonathan !  thou  wast  slain  in  thy  high  places. 

1  am  distressed  for  thee,  my  brother  Jonathan.  ^ 
Very  pleasant  hast  thou  been  unto  me  ; 

Thy  love  to  me  was  wonderful, 
Passing  the  love  of  women. 
How  are  the  mighty  fallen, 
And  the  weapons  of  war  perished!" 

Now  we  have  sometimes  tried  to  imagine  what  would  be  the 
feelings  of  two  such  young  men  as  David  and  Jonathan,  if  they 
could  come  back  into  the  world,  and  compare  experiences  with 
the  young  men  of  our  own  highly  civilized  generation.  Sup- 
pose this  eighth  son  of  Jesse,  the  heroic  shepherd  boy,  who  was 
not  afraid  to  beard  a  lion  in  his  lair,  and  who  had,  in  fact,  slain 
both  a  lion  and  a  bear,  as  well  as  the  giant  of  Gath,  before  he 
was  thought  old  enough  to  be  a  soldier  ;  or,  suppose  this  lion- 
hearted,  princely  son  of  Saul  could  come  and  stand  amongst 
the  boys  and  young  men  of  our  times  long  enough  to  see  their 
sports,  their  pastimes,  and  their  achievements.  What  would 
they  think  of  our  progress,  our  vaunted  greatness  and  refinement  ? 
What  opinion  could  these  earnest,  athletic,  tem.perate.  God- 
fearing young  men  of  the  olden  time  form  respecting  the  fash- 
ionable young  gentleman  of  our  modern  cities,  whose  chief  ac- 
complishments are,  that  he  can  smoke  and  swear,  drink  and 
gamble,  swagger  and  bet,  and  fight  duels  ;  that  he  can,  after 
the  most  approved  maxims  of  the  science,  dance  and  flirt  with 
silly  women  ;  that  he  can  afford  to  wear  fine  clothes,  and  do 
nothing  ;  whose  most  brilliant  achievements  are  his  victories  in 
the  ball-room,  the  bowling  saloon,  or  at  the  card  and  billiard 


OF    THE    BIBLE.  29u 

table  ;  and  whose  only  title  to  fame  is  the  fascination  of  hig 
fine  smile,  and  voice,  and  waving  hair  ?  We  honor  and  love 
the  young  man  who  is  a  man,  or  is  likely  to  become  one  ;  we 
hold  him  in  eternal  honor  ;  but  if  there  is  anything  on  earth 
which  we  abhor,  it  is  the  character  of  the  young  fashionable 
loafer,  your  cane-bearing,  cigar-consuming,  professed  loafer, 
who  is  neither  boy  nor  man,  but  a  compound  of  both,  with 
very  little  of  either. 

Alas  !  we  fear  there  is  a  large  and  growing  class  of  these  in 
all  our  great  cities,  made  up  from  the  ranks  of  the  wealthy 
and  the  educated,  and  sometimes  even  from  the  families  of  the 
church.  Who  has  not  marked  with  sorrow,  in  every  city, 
those  beardless  boys  with  the  air  of  men,  who  seem  to  have 
nothing  to  do  but  to  lounge  about  at  places  of  dissipation,  and 
whose  words  of  levity  and  reckless  profanity  indicate  the  char- 
acter which  they  have  already  formed  ?  Follow  them  through 
ten  years  of  city  life  such  as  this,  and  what  is  the  result  ?  You 
have  a  type  of  character  which  is  produced  now^iere  else  on 
earth,  except  in  cities  and  large  towns  ;  you  have  young  men 
with  some  of  the  external,  without  any  of  the  internal  attributes, 
of  the  gentleman  ;  young  men,  who  combine  the  effeminate  ap- 
pearance of  a  girl  with  the  ferocious  vices  of  a  gladiator  ;  young 
men,  who,  to  the  morals  of  a  bear,  add  the  manners  of  a  mon- 
key. Aye,  w^e  honor  the  young  man  ;  but  it  is  when  there  is 
something  of  a  man  in  him  ;  something  more,  at  least,  than  his 
clothes  and  his  hair. 

What  would  David  and  Jonathan,  Cyrus  and  Socrates,  Cato 
and  Scipio  Africanus,  or  even  our  own  Franklin,  think  the  race 
of  man  was  coming  to,  if  tliey  could  rise  from  the  dead,  and 
take  their  stations  at  the  corners  of  our  streets,  to  see  that 
living  stream  of  elegantly-dressed  and  ruddy  youth,  from  fifteen 


294  EEPEESKNTATIVE   YOUNG   MEN 

to  twentj-five,  pouring,  at  certain  hours  of  the  day,  into  those 
splendid  coffee-houses  and  gilded  palaces  of  pleasure,  in  which 
they  are  fitted  and  prepared  to  pour  back  again  at  night  into 
the  theatre  and  gaming-houses,  and  haunts  of  vice  that  crowd 
the  city  ? — If  there  is  a  spectacle  on  earth  that  might  make 
heaven  weep,  it  is  to  see  our  educated  youth,  of  respectable. 
Christian  families,  with  the  boast  of  freedom  and  gentility  on 
their  lips,  selling  their  heavenly  birthright  for  worse  than  a 
mess  of  pottage — selling  themselves,  soul  and  body,  to  the  de- 
basing, execrable  slavery  of  strong  drink  ;  to  see  many  a 
promising  boy,  the  hope  of  a  mother's  declining  age,  and  many 
a  talented  young  man,  whose  stately  tread  once  brought  from 
the  dust  the  sound  of  liberty,  coming  at  last  to  lie  down  in  the 
dirt  and  mire  of  a  drunkard's  grave.  0  !  is  there  no  puwer  on 
earth  that  can  arrest  the  curse  ;  that  can  rescue  our  sons  from 
the  horrible  doom  of  drunkenness  ;  that  can  save  our  country 
from  the  incubus  and  the  infamy  of  intemperance  ?  We  see 
none,  except  in  the  strong  arm  of  the  law. 


VII. SKETCH    OF    SAMUEL   AND    SAUL. 

From  the  youthful  David  and  Jonathan  we  may  go  back  a 
little  in  the  order  of  events,  to  contemplate  two  other  Bible 
characters,  who,  in  like  manner,  were  most  intimately  associated 
with  each  other  through  life,  and  were  at  last  brought  together 
in  death,  in  a  most  remarkable  manner.  These  are  Samuel  the 
Prophet  and  King  Saul — one  the  founder  of  the  prophetic  order 
in  Israel,  the  other  the  first  of  Jewish  monarchs — both  leading 
men  in  their  generation  and  representative  men  to  all  the  genera- 
tions to  come,  but   at  the  same  time   as  utterly  unlike  and 


OF   THE    BIBLE.  295 

repugnant  to  each  other,  as  they  were  remarkable  for  their  per- 
sonal endowments. 

In  Saul  we  see  a  man  who  could  not  bear  the  exaltation  of 
power  ;  unfit  to  be  a  ruler,  because  he  could  not  rule  his  own 
turbulent  spirit.  Possessing  unquestioned  courage  as  a  soldier  ; 
blest  with  a  magnificent  personal  appearance,  well  befitting  a 
king  ;  in  the  words  of  the  Bible,  "  a  choice  young  man  and  a 
goodly  ;  so  that  there  was  not  among  the  children  of  Israel  a 
goodlier  person  than  he  ;  from  his  shoulders  and  upwards 
higher  than  any  of  the  people  ;"  possessing  also  an  air  of  mod- 
esty, wisdom  and  virtue,  that  might  have  ennobled  any  private 
station,  he  nevertheless,  on  becoming  a  king,  seemed  to  lay 
aside  all  his  good  qualities,  to  abuse  all  his  advantages,  and  to 
become  by  turns,  a  despot,  a  fury,  a  fanatic,  a  murderer,  a 
demon,  and  a  rebel  against  God.  He  lived  a  wretched  life,  and 
at  last,  fell  in  battle  with  the  worse  than  doubtful  reputation 
of  a  suicide.  His  dark  and  turbulent  spirit,  the  seat  of  every 
malignant  and  ferocious  passion,  stands  as  a  fearful  warning  on 
the  heights  of  power  to  teach  us  how  far  iniquity  and  disobe- 
dience may  get  the  mastery  over  a  man,  who  in  his  youth 
seemed  to  be  the  special  favorite  of  earth  and  heaven,  and  to 
wear  the  fair  exterior  of  a  servant  of  the  Most  Hisrh. 

In  Samuel  we  behold  the  very  opposite.  The  noble  son  of 
Hannah,  growing  in  favor,  both  with  God  and  man,  stands 
forth  in  bold  contrast  with  the  degenerate  Saul.  "  All  Israel 
from  Dan  to  Beersheba  knew  that  Samuel  was  established  to 
be  a  prophet  of  the  Lord."  His  early  childhood  and  youth, 
baptized  with  all  the  hallT)wed  influences  of  a  mother's  prayers, 
dedicated  to  God  amid  all  the  holy  ministrations  of  the  public 
Sanctuary,  and  adorned  with  all  the  virtues  that  were  needful 
to  establish  the  sacredness  of  the  prophetic  oflBce,  cast  their 


296  REPRESENTATIVE   YOUNG    MEN 

lustre  forward  over  his  whole  subsequent  career.  "  Samuel 
miuistered  before  the  Lord,  bemg  a  child  girded  with  a  lineu 
ephod."  He  seems  to  have  been  the  first  child  that  bore  the 
character  of  prophet.  Such  a  childhood  might  well  make 
an  honorable  manhood  and  a  glorious  old  age. 

In  Samuel  we  trace  the  beginning  of  a  new  order  of  things 
among  the  Jews.  He  seems  to  have  been  the  founder  of  the 
prophetic  office  as  a  permanent  institution  in  Israel  :  just  as  he 
was,  by  divine  direction,  the  founder  of  the  kingly  government. 
He  arose  at  a  time,  when  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  such  as  it  had 
been  in  the  days  of  Moses,  and  of  Deborah,  had  departed  from 
Israel.  We  are  told  that  the  "  word  of  the  Lord  was  precious 
in  those  days  ;  there  was  no  open  vision."  We  have  just 
had  occasion  to  refer  to  his  childhood,  but  need  not  repeat  the 
story  here.  At  the  death  of  Eli  and  his  sons,  Samuel  seems  to 
have  become  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  head  of  the  nation.  He 
was  at  once  a  statesman,  jurist,  and  divine  ;  the  last  of  the 
fifteen  judges  of  Israel,  the  first  of  that  long  line  of  prophets 
which  closed  with  Malachi,  the  connecting  link  between  the 
Theocracy  and  the  Jewish  monarchy.  Though  a  Levite  by 
birth,  we  find  him  repeatedly  ofi'ering  sacrifice  as  a  priest ;  in 
the  administration  of  public  justice  travelling  as  a  judge  on  an 
annual  circuit  between  Bethel,  Mizpeh,  Gilgal  and  Ramah,  and 
sometimes  working  the  most  stupendous  miracles  for  the  vindi- 
cation of  the  cause  of  God,  and  the  annihilation  of  the  enemies 
of  his  country. 

But  the  great  office  which  gave  him  supremacy  over  Israel  was 
that  of  prophet.  As  such  he  held  a  position  of  higher  authority 
before  the  people  than  the  king  himself  whom  he  had  anointed; 
because  he  stood  as  the  interpreter  of  the  Divine  will.  There  is  a 
peculiar  interest  in  his  long  eventful  history,  beginning  as  it  does 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  297 

before  he  was  born,  and  not  ending  even  when  be  was  dead. 
The  circumstances  which  anticipated  his  birth  seemed  to  find 
their  counterpart  in  the  strange  apparition  to  Saul  which  fol- 
his  death.  Few  men  ever  spoke  with  such  kingly  authority,  and 
none  certainly  ever  uttered  a  voice  like  his  from  the  grave. 
History  tells  us  of  many  men  of  insatiable  ambition,  who,  like 
the  famous  Earl  of  Warwick,  have  aspired  to  the  glory  of  making 
kings  and  controlling  the  destinies  of  states  and  empires.  But 
here  is  a  man,  who  without  any  aspiration  or  ambition,  was  the 
first  and  greatest  of  king-makers,  setting  up  one,  and  putting 
down  another  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  and  in  virtue  of  his  pro- 
phetical character. 

The  longest  and  most  remarkable  prophecy  delivered  by 
Samuel,  is  that  which  describes  the  manner  in  which  the  peo- 
ple should  be  treated  by  their  kings  ;  and  which,  as  may  be  re- 
marked of  all  kingly  governments,  was  often  fulfilled  to  the  let- 
ter under  the  Jewish  monarchs.  But  perhaps  the  most  interest- 
ing passage  in  the  life  of  this  great  man,  is  that  in  which  he 
protests  his  own  integrity  as  a  public*  oflBcer,  when  resigning  all 
civil  authority  and  inducting  Saul  into  the  kingdom.  "  And 
Samuel  said  unto  all  Israel.  Behold,  I  have  hearkened  to  your 
voice  in  all  that  ye  said  unto  me,  and  have  made  a  king  over 
you.  And  now  behold,  the  king  walketh  before  you  :  and  I 
am  old  and  grey-headed  ;  and  behold  my  sons  are  with  you  ; 
and  I  have  walked  before  you  from  my  childhood  until  this 
day.  Behold,  here  I  am  ;  witness  against  me  before  the  Lord, 
and  before  his  anointed  :  whose  ox  have  I  taken  ?  or  whose 
ass  have  I  taken  ?  or  whom  have  I  defrauded  ?  whom  have  I 
oppressed  ?  or  of  whose  hand  have  I  received  any  bribe  to 
blind  mine  eyes  therewith,  and  I  will  restore  it.  And  they  said. 
Thou  hast  not  defrauded  us,  nor  oppressed  us,  neither  hast  thou 

13* 


298  REPRESENTATIVE    YOUNG    MEN 

taken  aught  of  any  man's  hand.  And  he  said  unto  them,  The 
Lord  is  witness  against  you,  and  his  anointed  is  witness  this 
day,  that  ye  have  not  found  aught  in  my  hand.  And  they 
answered.  He  is  witness." 

What  a  beautiful  tribute  to  the  integrity  of  the  man,  who 
through  a  long  life  had  held  the  chief  pkce  of  power,  and  now, 
in  his  old  age,  voluntarily  resigns  that  authority  which  he  had 
held  so  long  and  wielded  so  well  I  Glorious  old  man  I  sublime 
in  the  simple  consciousness  of  spotless  virtue,  eloquent  at  the  re- 
membrance that  no  misdeed  had  ever  marked  his  public  career. 
We  get  the  idea  not  only  of  a  venerable  prophet,  but  of  an  up- 
right judge  and  patriot  ;  and  the  name  of  Samuel  will  stand  for- 
ever associated  with  that  peculiar  glory  of  an  unsullied  ermine, 
which  belongs  to  Aristides  the  Just  among  the  Athenians,  to 
Sir  Matthew  Hale  among  the  English,  and  to  Chief  Justice 
Marshall  in  our  own  country. 


VIII. SAUL   AND    SAMUEL   AT   ENDOR. 

By  way  of  episode,  which  is  itself  one  of  the  most  striking 
characteristics  of  all  the  Bible  history,  we  may  here  turn  aside 
to  contemplate  a  most  singular  transaction,  which,  though  not 
belonging  to  our  present  theme,  yet  lies  fairly  in  our  way,  and 
gives  a  strange  dramatic  termination  to  the  history  of  these  two 
representative  men. 

The  most  remarkable  event  connected  with  the  name  of 
Samuel  in  the  Bible,  is  that  which  occurred  after  his  death — 
his  apparition  to  King  Saul  in  the  presence  of  the  Witch  of 
Endor,  as  narrated  in  the  28th  chapter  of  the  first  book  of 
Samuel.  On  a  subject  of  so  much  interest  to  every  Bible  reader, 


OF    THE    BIBLE.  299 

and  yet  of  so  much  difficulty,  we  would  venture,  in  passing, 
to  make  a  few  remarks.  Probably  nothing  in  the  Bible  has 
given  rise  to  more  learned  and  laborious  discussion  amongst 
eritics  than  the  case  of  the  Witch  of  Endor.  Some  assuming 
that  the  sorceress  possessed  powers  of  ventriloquism,  have  tried 
to  explain  all  the  alleged  phenomena  of  the  apparition  on 
that  hypothesis.  Others  have  maintained,  that  the  whole 
thing  was  a  fraud — a  gross  deception  palmed  off,  on  the  always 
excitable  and  now  despairing  mind  of  the  king,  through  a  secret 
understanding  between  the  Witch  and  Saul's  two  attendants. 
Others  have  admitted  all  the  appearances,  as  stated,  to  be  real 
facts  ;  but  ascribe  them  to  a  supernatural  power  possessed  by 
the  woman,  as  one  in  league  with  the  Devil — real  miracles 
wrought  by  Satanic  agency.  Others  again,  and  this  we  take 
to  be  the  only  true  view,  hold  to  the  reality  of  all  the  appear- 
ances, but  ascribe  them  to  the  miraculous  power  of  God.  That 
is  to  say,  the  record  is  a  true  history,  and  no  myth,  and  the 
main  fact,  the  apparition  of  the  prophet,  is  a  real  miracle 
wrought  by  the  hand  of  the  Almighty. 

According  to  this  view,  the  real  prophet  Samuel,  who,  while 
living,  had  mourned  over  the  transgressions  of  Saul  and  had 
labored  long  and  faithfully  to  reform  him,  and  whom  all  Israel 
had  long  ago  buried  in  his  quiet  tomb  at  Ramah  with  deep  and 
heartfelt  lamentations,  did  come  back  again  to  this  living  world 
to  utter  one  more,  and  his  last,  solemn  warning.  He  came  not 
only  to  tell  the  guilty  monarch  of  his  impending  doom,  but  to 
reprove  him  for  his  last  great  offence — his  treason  against  that 
ancient  statute  of  Israel,  which,  as  he  knew,  "  suffered  not  a 
witch  to  live."  We  regard  the  apparition  of  Samuel  as  a  true 
miracle  of  God,  intended  to  enforce  a  lesson  against  all  idola- 
trous and  heathenish  incantations,  which  the  express  letter  of 


300  EEPEESENTATIVE    YOUNG    MEN 

the  law  had  hitherto  failed  to  enforce.  As  such  it  is  no  more 
difficult  to  receive,  than  the  stopping  of  the  sun,  the  dividing 
of  the  sea,  the  preservation  of  Jonah,  or  any  other  inexplicable 
miracle  of  that  miraculous  age.  For  our  own  part,  we  never 
undertake  to  explain  a  miracle,  by  bringing  it  within  the  range 
of  natural  laws.  To  us  there  are  no  degrees  of  difficulty  about 
miracles.  They  are  all  or  nothing.  The  least  requires  the 
power  of  God  ;  the  greatest  claims  nothing  more.  Without 
God's  finger,  the  least  would  be  absurd  and  incredible  :  with  it, 
the  greatest  and  the  least  are  alike  possible  and  alike  reason- 
able. 

But  that  a  true  prophet  of  Jehovah  should  be  brought  back 
from  the  dead,  in  order  to  reprove  this  first  anointed  king  of 
Israel  in  the  very  act  of  his  high-handed  violation  of  the  law 
which  he  had  sworn  to  administer — that  the  very  man,  who  had 
anointed  him  to  fill  that  exalted  place  in  the  Theocracy,  which 
the  Lord  himself  had  heretofore  filled,  should  start  up,  as  it 
were  from  the  ground,  to  utter  his  indignant  and  terrible  denun- 
ciation upon  such  high-handed  treason,  is  not  stranger,  when  we 
consider  the  relation  of  the  parties,  and  the  greatness  of  the 
occasion,  than  that  a  dumb  beast  should  be  made  to  lift  a 
warning  voice  against  the  madness  of  Balaam,  or  that  the  false 
prophet  himself,  in  the  midst  of  his  divinations,  should  be  con- 
strained to  utter  blessings  instead  of  curses  upon  Israel.  How 
is  it  any  more  incredible  that  Samuel  should  come  back  into 
this  world,  appearing  to  the  senses  of  Saul  and  the  witch  of 
Endor  in  the  form  of  a  man,  and,  with  the  articulate  voice  of  a 
man,  foretelling  the  events  of  the  morrow,  than  that  Moses  and 
Elias  should  appear  to  Christ  and  his  disciples  on  the  mount 
of  transfiguration,  and,  in  their  hearing,  speak  of  the  approach 
ing  death  at  Jerusalem  ?    If  we  find  no  difficulty  in  the  one 


OF    THE   BIBLE.  301 

case,  where  is  the  exceeding  difiBculty  of  the  other  ?  As  to  any 
question  about  a  real  resurrection,  or  in  what  bodies  they 
appeared,  even  setting  EUas  aside,  we  can  do  no  more  to 
explain  the  apparition  of  Moses  on  the  mount,  than  that  of 
Samuel  at  Eudor.  But  if  angels  often  appeared  in  the  form 
and  aspect  of  men,  why  is  it  difficult  to  conceive  of  Samuel  or 
Moses,  as  appearing  in  their  own  peculiar  form  and  aspect  ? 

That  Samuel  did  really  appear,  is  evident  from  the  fact,  that 
the  sorceress  herself  was  thrown  into  consternation  at  the  appa- 
rition. It  is  obvious  that  she  expected  no  such  messenger  from 
the  grave.  She  felt  that  a  spirit  had  come  more  than  she  had 
bargained  for — greater  than  her  arts  could  quell  c^gain.  She 
acted  as  one  taken  by  surprise,  and  ready  to  cry  out — "  Angels 
and  ministers  of  grace  defend  us."  That  such  a  minister  of 
justice  should  start  up  in  her  dark  abode  of  guilt,  was  felt  to  be 
a  frown  from  God,  as  awful  as  it  was  unexpected,  both  upon  her- 
self, who  as  an  outlaw  was  practising,  and  upon  the  rebel  mon- 
arch who  was  seeking,  these  incantations  of  the  devil.  And 
what  think  you,  would  now  be  the  effect  of  such  an  apparition 
in  the  midst  of  a  clique  of  modern  dealers  in  this  same  ancient 
craft — your  clairvoyants  and  mesmerizers,  your  spirit-rappers  and 
pretenders  to  intercourse  with  the  dead.  Suppose,  that  on  some 
quiet  evening,  in  some  private  chamber  or  public  hall,  where 
these  modern  propagators  of  superstition  and  folly  are  met  with 
their  dupes,  seated  face  to  face  around  their  tables  of  incanta- 
tion, in  eager  expectation  of  the  signs  of  a  familiar  sjMrit — sup- 
pose God  should  utter  his  voice  and  work  a  real  miracle — an 
angel  from  heaven,  or  a  messenger  from  the  grave  should 
appear — "  like  gods  ascending  from  the  earth."  There  shall  start 
forth  a  venerable  form,  "  an  old  man  covered  with  a  mantle," 
and  standing  revealed  to  every  eye,  he  shall  utter,  with  up- 


302  REPRESENTATIVE    YOUNG    MEN 

lifted  finger  and  unearthly  voice,  those  words  of  terror — "  The 
Lord  is  departed  from  you,  and  become  your  enemy," — how 
would  such  a  company  start  from  their  divinations  like  the 
witch  of  Endor,  and  feel  that  the  day  of  doom  had  come.  How 
would  they  see  "  Ichabod,"  written  upon  all  their  vile  pretences 
and  ill-gotten  gains.  How  would  they,  in  such  an  hour,  find,  like 
Belshazzar,  the  "  Mene,  Tekel,  Upharsin,"  of  a  righteous  dam- 
nation. 

Alas  !  for  the  strength  of  intellect  and  the  boasted  dignity 
of  human  nature  !  Is  it  not  sad  to  think,  that  in  these  days  of 
light  and  knowledge,  there  are  still  women  and  men,  claiming 
intelligence  and  common  sense,  not  to  say  respectability,  who 
have  so  far  taken  leave  of  their  senses  as  to  believe  in  witch- 
craft— pretending  to  hold  intercourse  with  the  dead  through 
chairs  and  tables,  brick  and  mortar — worshiping  at  a  shrine 
of  folly  more  absurd  and  degrading  than  any  heathen  oracle 
— worshiping  in  fact  at  the  shrine  of  Endor  (though  under 
a  different  name)  where  Saul  met  the  indignation  of  an  angry 
prophet  and  an  avenging  God  1  And  with  what  brazen- 
faced effrontery  do  the  abettors  of  these  lying  wonders  parade 
them  before  the  public,  as  science — discoveries  of  science  I 
There  is  about  as  much  science  in  them  as  there  was  in  the  den 
of  the  witch  of  Endor — the  science  of  "  old  wives'  fables,"  and 
of  men  half  mad,  like  Saul.  We  all  know— every  man  of 
ordinary  intelligence  and  common  sense  ought  to  know — that 
whatever  of  fact  or  reality  there  may  be  in  the  strange  phe- 
nomena reported  by  mesmerizers,  clairvoyants,  rappers  and  table- 
movers,  can  easily  be  referred  to  electricity,  animal  magnetism, 
or  known  mechanical  agents.  And  so  far  these  reports  are  nei- 
ther new  nor  inexplicable.  All  that  is  true  about  them  has 
been  known  long  ago,  or  contains  no  marvel.     The  marvels  and 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  '  303 

the  novelties  will  all  turn  out  to  be  false.  We  believe  that 
after  a  full  deduction  has  been  made,  first  for  fraud,  and  then 
for  fanaticism,  there  will  be  next  thing  to  nothing  left  in  the 
way  of"  real  facts,  which  are  so  new  that  they  have  been  un- 
known to  science,  and  so  wonderful  that  they  must,  per  force, 
be  referred  to  supernatural  causes.  Science  scouts  the  whole 
.hing  as  a  silly  humbug.  Religion  frowns  upon  it  as  a  willful 
and  dangerous  delusion.  And  here  lies  the  danger.  The 
absurd  and  wicked  thing,  the  insane  and  dangerous  thing,  is  this 
claim  of  supernatural  agency — the  pretence  of  intercourse  with 
the  dead,  and  of  a  revelation  from  the  spiritual  world.  "We 
have  no  hesitation  in  pronouncing  such  a  claim,  to  be  a  sham 
and  a  delusion — a  species  of  witchcraft  as  vile  and  abominable 
as  that  of  Endor. 

Do  we  judge  harshly  I  We  judge  by  the  results,  as  well  as 
by  the  established  maxims  of  God's  word.  By  their  fruits  ye 
shall  know  them.  What  fruit  has  this  tree  borne  ?  What 
good  thus  far  has  it  done  for  the  world  ?  This  whole  tribe  of 
reformers  have  come  with  the  boast  of  science  on  their  lips. 
In  one  form  or  other  they  have  been  at  work  some  fifteen  or 
twenty  years.  Trace  their  labors  backwards  through  their 
various  shifting  phases  of  table-moving,  spirit-rapping,  biology, 
clairvoyance,  mesmerism  and  phrenology — and  tell  us,  if  you 
can,  what  single  discovery  in  science,  or  what  useful  invention 
in  the  fine  or  mechanic  arts,  they  have  all  together  added  to 
the  world  during  this  age,  so  prolific  in  great  improvements  ? 
The  only  fruits  which  this  tree  can  claim,  as  of  its  own  bearing, 
have  been  "  apples  of  Sodom  and  grapes  of  Gomorrah."  It 
has  led  some  to  suicide,  and  some  to  insanity,  and  many  to  a 
total  subversion  of  all  religion  and  virtue.  And  next  to  that 
stupendous  imposture,  called  Mormonism — that  vile  compound 


304  KEPKESENTATIVE   YOUNG   MEN 

of  licentiousness,  ambition,  hypocrisy  and  blasphemy,  which  is 
seeking  to  inaugurate  all  the  vices  of  savage  life  upon  the 
throne  of  civilization,  we  regard  this  wide  spread  revival  of 
Endorism  as  the  most  dangerous  and  degrading  delusion  of 
the  times. 

"  Saul,"  remarks  GilfiUan,  "  abandoned  of  heaven  must  go 
in  his  extremity  and  knock  at  the  door  of  hell."  It  would  seem 
that  even  yet  men  sometimes  prefer  knocking  at  the  door  of  hell 
to  that  of  heaven.  There  was  a  true  prophet  in  Israel.  But 
Saul  would  neither  hear  nor  obey  his  voice.  There  is  a  sure 
word  of  prophecy  in  the  world  now — better  than  any  Jewish 
Urim  and  Thummira,  or  ancient  heathen  oracle — a  revelation 
from  God  himself,  which  tells  us  all  we  need  to  know  about  the 
dead  and  the  unseen  world.  But  many  forsake  the  Bible  for 
the  unblushing  impostures  of  Mormonism  ;  and  many  turn  from 
prophets  and  apostles,  and  the  son  of  God  who  spoke  from 
heaven,  to  seek  for  familiar  spirits  through  pots  and  cups  and 
tables  :  and  thus  knock  at  the  door  of  hell.  Everything  on 
earth  has  had  an  ancestry,  and  may  boast  a  succession.  We 
take  it,  that  the  men  and  women  who  perambulate  the  country 
and  write  books,  professing  to  have  communications  with  the 
dead,  are  the  legitimate  successors  of  Saul  and  the  Witch  ot 
Endor,  with  this  difference,  that  she  staid  in  her  den  and  wrote 
no  book.  In  Pollock's  Course  of  Time  are  two  lines,  in  two  dif- 
ferent books,  which,  if  they  had  stood  together,  would  make 
no  mean  example  of  parallelism,  and  describe  this  very  case — 

"  Productive  was  the  world  in  many  things,  but  most  in  booka.'* 
"  Fertile  was  earth  in  many  things,  not  least  in  fools." 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  30i 


IX. THE    CHARACTER    OF    ABSALOif. 

Next  upon  our  list  of  noted  Bible  characters,  appears  a  per- 
sonage altogether  different  from  any  we  have  yet  contemplated. 
It  is  Absalom,  the  third  and  most  beloved  son  of  King  David, 
with  a  character  somewhat  after  our  modern  style.  In  him,  we 
behold  a  young  man  in  his  farthest  extreme  from  the  youthful 
David  and  Jonathan.  He  stands  out  as  an  example  of  selfish- 
ness, ambition,  and  intrigue  ;  the  unnatural  son,  the  daring 
rebel,  the  unscrupulous  usurper.  He  had  the  distinction,  such  as 
it  is,  of  being  the  handsomest  young  man  of  his  generation. 
"  In  all  Israel,"  says  the  sacred  writer,  "  there  was  no  one  so 
much  to  be  praised  as  Absalom  for  his  beauty  ;  from  the  sole 
of  his  foot,  even  to  the  crown  of  his  head,  there  was  no  blemish 
in  him."  We  do  not  mention  this  as  any  disparagement  in  itself  ; 
for  had  there  been  anything  else  good  about  him,  his  fine  phy- 
sical form  would  have  been  a  blessing.  His  heroic  father,  when 
a  young  man,  as  we  are  told,  was  a  "  comely  person  and  of  a 
beautiful  countenance."  But  the  outer  man  seems  to  have  con- 
stituted the  only  point  of  resemblance  between  the  father  and 
the  son.  In  every  trait  of  character,  no  two  young  men  of  the 
Bible  are  more  unlike  than  David  and  Absalom. 

Proud  of  his  royal  descent,  both  on  the  father's  and  the 
mother's  side,  proud  of  his  splendid  personal  appearance,  he  was 
led  by  his  excessive  love  of  admiration,  while  yet  at  an  early 
age,  to  erect  a  marble  pillar,  in  the  king's  dale,  to  bear  his 
name  and  perpetuate  his  precious  memory.  Too  important  a 
character,  in  his  own  esteem,  to  run  any  risk  of  being  forgotten, 
he  took  the  matter  of  posthumous  fame  in  hand  early,  and,  like 
other  mighty  ones  of  the  earth,  built  a  monument  to  tell  men 


306  KEPKESENTATIVE   YOUNG    MEN 

of  the  son  of  David,  aud  the  grandson  of  the  king  of  Geshur, 
Perhaps  he  suspected,  that,  without  something  of  the  kind,  his 
name  would  soon  perish.  He  gloried  in  dress,  in  chariots, 
in  fine  horses,  and  in  equipage.  He  had  fifty  men  to  run  before 
him  as  he  dashed  along  the  streets,  through  the  gates,  and  over 
the  hills  of  Jerusalem.  He  seems,  most  of  all,  to  have  gloried 
in  the  exuberance  of  his  hair,  probably  cultivating  it  from  year 
to  year  with  all  that  care  with  which  a  farmer  would  till  his 
fields  for  the  harvest  ;  for  we  read,  that  he  "  polled  it  at  the 
end  of  the  year,"  reaping  an  average  crop  if  he  cut  it  off,  or 
bearing  an  annual  burden,  if  he  only  trimmed  it,  "  of  two  hun- 
dred shekels  of  the  king's  w^eight," — some  four  or  five  pounds 
more  or  less,  of  hair  and  ointment  together.  He  was  mani- 
festly the  leader  of  the  fashion  of  Jerusalem,  and  in  that  field 
distanced  every  competitor.  A  king,  in  expectation,  surrounded 
already  by  his  admirers  and  flatterers,  he  was  to  the  court  of 
David  what  George  IV.  was  to  England  in  his  day — the  hand- 
somest man,  and  at  the  same  time  of  least  account,  in  all  the 
kingdom.  He  was  evidently  the  prince  of  dandies  ;  the  embod- 
iment of  a  fasliionable  gentleman  of  the  times  ;  the  very  Ches- 
terfield of  Jerusalem  ;  at  once  the  Beau  Brummel  and  the  Beau 
Nash  of  all  Israel. 

But  he  was,  withal,  a  man  of  some  tact  and  talent.  He  never 
could  have  stolen  the  hearts  of  the  people  from  a  monarch  so 
beloved  as  David,  and  come  so  near  to  success  in  wresting  the 
the  sceptre  from  his  hands,  had  he  not  possessed  something  of 
the  adroitness  and  address  of  a  popular  leader.  With  all  his 
dandyism,  he  had  talents  enough  to  play  the  demagogue  ;  and 
in  that  he  diflfers  from  the  modern  dandy.  He  is,  in  fact,  the 
most  finished  example  which  the  Bible  gives  us  of  that  modern 
character — the  artful,  intriguing,  political  demagogue.     If  any 


OP   THE   BIBLE.  307 

one  wishes  to  study  the  character  at  its  fountain-head,  and  is 
at  all  curious  to  see  the  most  ancient  portraiture  of  it  in  the 
world,  he  may  find  it  in  this  prince  of  popular  idols  as  he  is  set 
forth  in  the  second  book  of  Samuel. 

With  a  bow  of  recognition  to  every  passer-by  ;  with  a  smile 
of  flattery  for  every  rich  man,  and  a  l^iss  of  condescension  for 
every  poor' one  ;  with  soft  words  of  adulation  for  tlie  great,  and 
honeyed  promises  of  redress  for  the  lowly,  he  set  himself  every 
day  in  the  gates  of  Jerusalem,  as  the  reformer  of  abuses,  the 
fast  and  loving  friend  of  the  people,  saying  :  "  0,  that  I  were 
made  judge  in  the  land,  that  every  man  which  hath  any  suit  or 
cause  might  come  unto  me,  and  I  would  do  him  justice."  The 
Bible  does  not  so  inform  us,  but  it  is  natural  to  suppose,  that, 
possessing  as  he  did  a  fascinating  person  and  an  elegant  address, 
he  was  not  a  whit  behind  our  modern  demagogues  ;  but  under- 
stood all  their  arts  of  ingratiating  himself  with  the  people,  and 
stealing  away  the  hearts  of  the  men  of  Israel,  by  first  making 
himself  exceedingly  polite  and  agreeable  to  the  women  and 
children. 

Feeling  himself  to  be  one  who  was  born  to  command,  and 
superior  to  his  brothers  by  reason  of  his  royal  mother,  there 
was  nothing  to  which  he  would  not  stoop  in  order  to  conquer. 
He  was  the  first  to  play  that  very  common  game  of  modern 
king-crafi — assuming  the  demagogue  for  the  sake  of  the  despot 
— willing  to  be  the  people's  man  in  order  to  be  the  people's 
master.  And,  with  equal  grace,  he  could  play  the  flatterer 
and  the  tyrant.  Having  long  since  treacherously  slain  his 
eldest  brother,  Amnon,  as  much,  no  doubt,  from  policy  with  a 
view  to  the  succession  as  from  revenge  for  his  sister's  injury  ; 
and  having  waited,  probably,  till  Chileab,  the  second  son,  was 
dead,  and  being  impatient  now  for  that  throne  to  which  he  was 


308  REPRESENTATIVE   YOUNG   MEN 

thus  heir  apparent,  and  which  the  long  life  of  David  prevented 
him  from  ascending — he  devised  that  memorable  conspiracy 
and  rebellion,  which  you  have  all  read,  and  which  need  not  now 
be  recited.  With  all  his  beauty  and  his  advantages  of  birth 
and  education,  with  all  his  professions  of  justice  and  benevolent 
regard  for  the  people,  his  career  in  this  unnatural,  ungrateful, 
cruel  rebellion,  proved  him  to  be  a  man  who  could  "  smile  and 
smile,  and  be  a  villain  ;"  who  could  steal  the  "  livery  of  heaven 
to  serve  the  devil  in." 

Think  you  we  judge  him  harshly  ?  Read  his  life  again,  and 
study  his  character  well,  and  you  will  not  think  so.  What  I 
judge  him  harshly,  who,  after  driving  from  the  throne  that  old, 
heart-broken  father  that  had  loved  him  so  tenderly  and  forgiven 
him  so  much,  and,  after  defiling  his  father's  household  upon  the 
very  housetop,  in  the  face  of  all  Jerusalem,  by  an  incest  similar 
to  that  for  which  he  had  killed  his  brother,  could  then  raise  an 
army,  and  pursue  him  in  person  across  the  Jordan,  determined 
to  be  satisfied  with  nothing  short  of  the  patriarch's  blood  ? 
No,  no  ;  it  was  nothing  softer,  nothing  better  than  a  villain's 
heart  that  beat  beneath  the  fair  exterior  of  such  a  man  I  His 
history  shows  how  the  beautiful  and  diabolical  may  sometimes 
meet  in  human  nature  ;  how  vice  as  well  as  poison  may  be 
gilded  ;  how  the  deadly  venom  of  the  viper  may  lurk  beneath 
a  skin  radiant  with  the  heavenly  hues  of  the  rainbow. 

And  his  tragical  end  was  an  appropriate  doom  for  such  a  life. 
He  fell  in  that  battle  in  which  he  expected  David  to  fall.  By 
seeking  the  life,  not  less  than  the  throne  of  his  father,  he  had 
forfeited  his  own.  And,  as  if  the  even-handed  justice  of  heaven 
w^ould  have  its  perfect  work,  he  fell  a  victim  to  his  ambition  by 
means  of  that  very  personal  adornment  in  which  his  vanity  had 
BO  much  gloried.     There  can  be  no  manner  of  doubt  that  he  was 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  309 

hung  by  his  hair  ;  for  although  we  are  barely  told  that  he  wag 
caught  by  his  head  under  the  thick  boughs  of  a  great  oak,  still 
had  he  been  thus  caught  and  suspended  by  anything  fastening 
the  neck,  he  must  have  been  instantly  killed,  either  by  the  sud- 
den shock  or  by  suffocation,  which  we  know  was  not  the  case. 
The  manner  of  his  death  has  often  reminded  us  of  the  apostle's 
words,  which,  for  aught  we  know,  may  have  been  suggested  by 
it :  "  Doth  not  even  nature  itself  teach  you,  that  if  a  man  have 
long  hair,  it  is  a  shame  unto  him  ?" 

The  victory,  however,  which  had  saved  the  life  of  David  at 
the  cost  of  his  son's,  was  one  of  grief  and  bitter  lamentation  to 
the  doting  father.  For,  after  all  his  crimes,  Absalom  was  still 
the  child  of  his  yearning  affections  ;  and  there  is  probably  not 
on  record  a  more  striking  illustration  of  parental  love,  than 
that  such  a  father  should  have  said  of  such  a  son  :  "0, 
Absalom  I  my  son  I  my  son  !  Would  to  God  I  had  died  for 
thee,  my  son  !"  No  doubt  the  keenness  of  David's  anguish 
arose  from  the  conviction,  that  he  had  been  himself  the  cause 
of  his  son's  ruin.  He  had  committed  great  crimes  in  his  own 
domestic  relations  ;  and,  although  he  had  repented  of  them  in 
dust  and  ashes  long  ago,  they  were  now,  according  to  the 
threatened  judgments  of  God,  bearing  their  bitter  fruits  in  the 
dissensions  and  premature  violent  deaths  of  his  children.  He 
felt  himself  to  be  under  the  frown  of  God  in  all  those  calami- 
ties ;  and  justly  so,  because  he  knew,  as  well  as  we  do,  that 
even  a  man  after  God's  own  heart  cannot  commit  great  sins 
without  paying  great  penalties.  And  as  he  mourned  and  wept 
for  this  darling  child,  he  doubtless  felt  that  had  he  been  faithful 
to  his  marriage  relations,  faithful  to  his  child,  and  faithful  to 
God,  this  dreadful  doom  would  not  have  overtaken  him. 

As  for  Absalom,  every  one  who  reads  the  narrative  of  his 


310  REPRESENTATIVE   YOITNG   MEN 

rebellion  must  feel  that  he  met  the  fate  which  he  deserved  ;  thai 
Joab  was  right,  although  in  disobedience  to  the  orders  of  hia 
sovereign,  in  ridding  the  world  of  sucli  a  monster.  He  need 
not  have  reared  a  pillar  in  the  king's  dale  ;  his  name  will  long 
survive  his  monument,  and  stand  as  a  warning  to  all  young 
men,  to  tell  the  sad  story  of  the  worst  of  sons,  the  prince  of 
demagogues,  and  the  fallen  victim  of  a  vaulting  ambition. 


X. ^THE   YOUNG   MAN    AS    SOVEREIGN. 

But  we  should  weary  you  to  speak  in  detail  of  all  the  pro- 
minent young  men  of  the  Old  Testament.  Those  that  remain  to 
be  mentioned,  we  must  pass  over  with  a  briefer  notice,  although 
as  distinguished,  and  as  worthy  of  our  study,  as  their  predeces- 
sors. From  the  whole  line  of  Jewish  kings,  extending  from 
Saul  to  Zedekiah,  most  of  whom  ascended  the  throne  in  early 
youth,  we  select,  for  a  passing  glance,  but  two  examples,  in 
order  to  exhibit  the  young  man  of  the  Bible  in  the  character 
of  sovereign.  These  are  Solomon  and  Josiah.  The  first  was, 
in  some  respects,  not  only  the  most  illustrious  of  kings,  but  the 
most  remarkable  of  men.  His  name  has  descended  to  all  ages 
in  a  way  that  no  other  name  has  ever  equalled,  a  proverb  for 
wisdom,  learning,  wealth,  and  wordly  grandeur.  And  for  all 
these  he  was  most  illustrious  while  as  yet  a  young  man.  On 
the  shoulders  of  his  tender  youth  was  laid  the  weight  of  a  great 
empire,  but  with  it  he  had  the  treasured  experience  of  hoary- 
headed  wisdom  and  philosophy.  He  was  less  than  twenty  years 
old  when  he  sat  down  on  the  throne  of  David,  at  a  period  of 
profound  peace  between  Israel  and  all  the  surrounding  nations 
And,  beyond  all  comparison,  he  was  the  most  accompHshed  mou« 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  311 

arch  in  his  personal  attainments,  and  the  most  puissant  one  in 
the  extent  of  his  influence  abroad,  that  ever  sat  on  David's 
throne.  The  queen  of  the  South  bowed  in  homage  at  his  feet  ; 
nor  did  Israel  ever  see  "  a  greater  than  Solomon,"  save  in  him 
who  was  both  "  David's  Son  and  Lord,"  whose  kingdom  was 
not  of  this  world. 

Blest  with  all  the  counsels  which  such  a  father  as  David  could 
give  him,  endowed  with  the  genius  of  a  poet  and  the  profound 
reason  of  a  statesman  ;  crowned  with  an  authority  extending 
from  Egypt  to  the  Euphrates  ;  possessed  of  all  that  golden 
wealth  which  commerce  was  bringing  him  from  the  Ophir  of 
the  East  and  the  Tarshish  of  the  West,  and,  above  all,  inspired 
with  a  wisdom  direct  from  God,  he  seems  to  have  had  all,  and 
enjoyed  all,  that  Divine  Providence  could  bestow  on  mortal  man, 
to  make  him  great  and  happy.  And  although  the  meridian  of 
his  manhood  was  darkened  by  many  clouds,  and  the  sun  of  his 
old  age  at  last  went  down  in  gloom,  yet  was  his  early  youth  a 
morning  of  unparalleled  brightness  and  glory. 

In  the  example  of  Solomon,  therefore  we  behold  the  young 
man  on  the  very  pinnacle  of  this  world's  greatness  ;  we  behold 
him  invested  with  the  largest  measure  of  fortune,  fame,  and 
grandeur,  that  human  life  admits  of ;  we  behold  him  like  an 
angel,  standing  in  the  sun,  but  without  an  angel's  strength  to 
stand.  Knowing  as  he  did,  by  sad  experience,  the  perils  of 
such  a  position,  well  might  his  dying  father  utter  that  solemn 
injunction  :  "  Thou  Solomon,  my  son,  know  thou  the  God  of 
thy  father,  and  serve  him  with  a  perfect  heart  and  a  willing 
mind  ;  if  thou  seek  him,  he  will  be  found  of  thee  ;  but  if  thou 
forsake  him,  he  will  cast  thee  off  forever." 

But  we  cannot  follow  his  history  further  now.  We  mnst 
leave  him  there  in  his  tender  youth  on  those  heights  of  gloryv 


312  REPRESENTATIVE   YOTTNG   MEN 

As  we  turn  away,  however,  dazzled  by  the  excessive  light  of 
such  a  vision,  we  seem  to  hear  a  voice  of  foreboding,  saying  of 
the  world,  "  Vanity  of  vanities,  all  is  vanity  ;"  we  seem  to  hear 
the  voice  of  that  same  man,  though  no  longer  the  voice  of 
youth,  saying  to  the  young  men  of  every  land  :  "  Remember 
now  thy  Creator,  in  the  days  of  thy  youth,  while  the  evil  days 
come  not,  nor  the  years  draw  nigh,  when  thou  shalt  say  I  have 
no  pleasure  in  them." 

Of  the  good  king  Josiah,  much  more  might  be  said  than  our 
present  limits  will  allow.  Although  his  lot  was  cast  in  the  last 
degenerate  days  of  the  kingdom  of  Judah,  he  was  imbued  with 
much  of  the  patriotic,  heroic,  and  religious  spirit  of  his  great 
ancestor  David.  Had  t]ie  times  and  the  people,  and  the  long- 
delayed  judgments  of  heaven,  permitted  it,  he  might  have  re- 
stored the  nation  to  something  of  its  pristine  glory.  He  is  an 
example  amongst  many  others  in  history  to  teach  us,  that  cir- 
cumstances and  great  men  must  work  together  in  order  to  pro- 
duce a  grand  result  ;  that  a  really  great  and  noble  character 
may  struggle  in  vain,  as  to  any  lasting  result,  when  the  great 
occasion  is  wanting,  when  the  foundations  are  destroyed,  and 
the  times  are  all  out  of  joint.  Still,  for  the  circumstances 
surrounding  him,  he  accomplished  a  great  and  glorious  work. 
Called  to  the  throne  when  only  eight  years  old,  and  distinguished 
for  his  piety,  even  at  that  early  age,  he  took  in  hand  the  work 
of  a  radical  reform  among  the  people  at  twelve  ;  and  during  a 
reign  of  thirty-one  years,  successfully  carried  forward  the  most 
thorough  work  of  that  kind,  which  had  ever  been  wrought 
amongst  the  Jewish  people.  Fearing  God  from  his  childhood, 
in  a  period  of  universal  corruption,  he  had  so  far  infused  his 
own  spirit  into  the  nation,  and  brought  them  back  to  the 
observance  of  the  law  of  Moses,  that,  when  he  was  slain  in 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  313 

battle  in  his  thirty-ninth  year,  fighting  for  his  country,  he  had 
the  distinction  of  being  the  best-beloved  while  living,  and  the 
most  lamented  when  dead,  of  all  the  Jewish  sovereigns.  He 
was  to  his  country  what  Edward  VI.  would  probably  have  been 
to  England  had  he  lived  as  long — a  wise  king  and  a  good 
man. 

XL YOUNG   MEN    OF   THE    CAPTIVITY. 

In  closing  our  account  of  the  young  men  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, we  have  barely  time  to  allude  to  several,  under  one  group, 
who  lived  in  the  perilous  times  of  the  Jewish  captivity.  In  two 
of  them,  Jeremiah  and  Daniel,  we  see  the  young  man  as  he 
appears  in  the  sublime  character  of  a  prophet  of  the  Most 
High.  Jeremiah  was  called  to  the  prophetic  office  at  an  unu-. 
Bually  tender  age  ;  and,  after  contributing  much  to  strengthen 
the  hands  of  his  youthful  sovereign,  Josiah,  in  his  great  refor- 
mation, he  continued  to  prophesy  at  Jerusalem  during  all  the 
years  of  its  decline  and  fall — until  prophecy  was  exchanged  for 
a  book  of  Lamentations  over  the  doom  of  his  unhappy  country. 
Daniel  was  only  in  part  contemporaneous  with  Jeremiah,  coming 
a  little  later  on  the  stage,  and  being  one  of  the  children  of  the 
captivity  at  Babylon,  whilst  the  weeping  prophet,  after  the  fall 
of  Jerusalem,  was  carried  down  into  Egypt.  Daniel's  whole 
career,  of  alternate  adversity  and  promotion  in  the  land  of  his 
exile,  bears  a  very  strong  resemblance  to  that  of  Joseph  in 
Egypt.  While  yet  a  young  man,  he  was  as  much  distinguished 
as  an  interpreter  of  dreams,  a  statesman,  and  prime  minister  of 
the  king  of  Babylon,  as  he  was  afterwards  for  his  fearless  piety 
and  his  prophetical  office.  These  two  young  servants  of  Jeho- 
▼ah,  Daniel  and  Jeremiah,  though  living  in  distant  cities,  were 

14 


314  REPRESENTATIVE   YOUNG   MEN 

greatly  alike  in  that  stern,  inflexible  energy  and  intrepidity  of 
character,  with  which  they  discharged  their  respective  missions, 
and  braved  the  wrath  of  haughty,  tyrannical  kings  on  more 
than  one  occasion.  Jeremiah,  though  by  nature  endued  with  a 
heart  as  timid  and  sensitive  as  any  woman's,  was  by  grace  a 
hero,  armed  for  any  work.  We  never  see  him  alone,  in  the 
privacy  of  his  devotions,  when  he  is  not  weeping,  and  pouring 
out  hijB  complaints  in  the  ears  of  Jehovah.  And  we  never  see 
him  in  public,  standing  up  to  utter  the  vengeance  of  the  Lord 
against  the  corrupt  kings  and  princes  of  Judah,  when  he  does 
not  appear  as  a  man  whose  face  is  adamant,  and  whose  nerve 
is  iron.  He  was  frequently  imprisoned,  and  once  immured  in 
a  deep,  dark  dungeon,  where  he  expected  soon  to  perish  in  the 
mire. 

And  so  Daniel,  rather  than  swerve  a  hair's  breath  from  the 
line  of  duty  and  allegiance  to  the  God  of  his  youth,  did  not  fear 
the  wrath  of  all  his  enemies,  nor  shrink  from  the  terror  of  a 
lion's  den.  The  world  has  loved  to  celebrate  the  noble  daring 
of  its  apostles  of  liberty,  its  champions  for  the  rights  of  man, 
its  Tells  and  Savonarolas,  its  Hampdens  and  Sidneys,  its  Wal- 
laces and  Russells,  its  Husses  and  Jeromes  ;  but  the  world  has 
beheld  no  finer  examples  of  heroic  moral  courage  for  truth  and 
right,  and  conscience  sake,  than  those  which  were  exhibited  so 
long  ago  in  Jeremiah's  dungeon  and  Daniel's  night  with  the 
lions.  In  the  midst  of  sorrounding  wickedness,  and  in  the  face 
of  danger  and  death,  they  stood  up  heroically  as  witnesses  for 
God  ;  ready,  if  need  be,  to  seal  their  testimony  with  their 
blood  ;  ready,  by  a  death  of  martyrdom,  to  vindicate  a  life 
devoted  to  the  cause  of  the  true  God. 

They  stood  not  alone,  however,  even  in  those  degenerate  days. 
W  e  find  a  parallel  case  in  three  other  young  men  of  the  cap- 


OF   THE  BIBLE.  315 

tivity — Daniel's  companions,  Hananiab,  Mishael  and  Azariah, 
whose  faith,  like  pure  gold,  stood  the  test  of  the  fiery  furnace 
of  Nebuchadnezzar.  For  daring  all  and  suffering  all  in  defence 
of  the  true  religion,  these  three  children  of  the  captivity, 
although  they  escaped  death,  are  well  worthy  of  a  place  in  the 
noble  army  of  martyrs.  Along  with  Daniel,  they  had  been  pro- 
moted by  the  king,  and  placed  in  authority  over  the  provinces 
of  Babylon  ;  but  rather  than  yield  to  a  decree  requiring  them 
to  abjure  their  religion,  by  worshiping  an  idolatrous  image 
which  he  had  set  up  in  the  plain  of  Dura,  they  were  willing  to 
lose,  not  only  their  posts  of  honor,  but  their  lives.  Persisting 
in  their  refusal,  they  were  thrust  into  the  "  fiery  furnace,  heated 
seven-fold  ;"  and  thus  appealing  from  man's  judgment  to  God's 
they  were  miraculously  delivered  by  "  One  like  unto  the  Son  of 
God,"  walking  with  them  in  the  midst  of  the  flames. 

In  their  example,  we  have  an  early  and  sublime  illustration 
of  the  way  in  which  men  must  obey  God  rather  than  man, 
when  human  laws  come  in  collision  with  the  Divine  ;  not  by 
taking  the  sword  of  resistance,  but  by  firmly  standing  to  their 
principles,  and  leaving  the  result  to  God  ;  not  by  rising  in 
rebellion  against  the  "  powers  that  be,"  but  by  standing  ready, 
like  Paul,  both  to  suffer  and  to  die  for  the  sake  of  their  reli- 
gion. The  principle  was  gloriously  illustrated  in  the  history  of 
all  the  apostles,  as  it  had  been  in  the  life  and  death  of  their 
Master.  It  has  been  illustrated  on  every  page  of  the  book  of 
Christian  martyrology.  The  persecuted  witnesses  of  the  truth 
in  every  land — the  heroic  confessors,  and  reformers,  and  non- 
conformists of  the  church,  from  Paul  to  Wickliffe,  and  from 
Wickliffe  to  the  presen*-hour — have  only  acted  out  this  great 
Protestant  principle,  which  was  so  early  and  so  signally  vindi- 
cated on  the  plain  of  Dura,  by  Shadrach,  Meshach  and  Abed- 


BIB  EEPKESENTATIVE   YOUNG    MEN 

nego — to  obey  God  rather  than  man,  to  suffer  all  rather  than 
betray  the  truth.  It  is  the  opposite  of  that  cowardly,  time-ser- 
ving, Erastian  sph'it,  which,  under  cover  of  loyalty  to  the  state^ 
would  sell  the  Saviour  for  thirty  pieces  of  silver  ;  whose  first 
principle  is  to  hold  fast  to  its  living  and  let  its  religion  go.  It 
is  the  opposite  of  the  weather-cock  spirit  of  the  notorious  vicar 
of  Bray,  who,  during  the  civil  commotions  of  the  English  refor- 
mation, was  twice  a  Papist  and  twice  a  Protestant,  and  when 
charged  with  his  inconsistency,  replied,  "  It  is  not  so  ;  I 
always  keep  to  my  principle,  which  is.  To  live  and  die  vicar  of 
Bray." 

XII. THE  YOUNG  MEN  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 

We  cannot  dwell,  at  any  length,  upon  the  character  of  the 
young  men  of  the  New  Testament.  The  completeness  of  our 
subject,  however,  demands,  that  they  should  not  be  omitted 
altogether.  In  order  to  have  before  us  a  sort  of  panoramic 
view  of  the  young  men  of  the  whole  Bible  history,  it  will  be 
sufficient  barely  to  mention  a  few  of  the  most  memorable  ex- 
amples of  the  New  Testament,  whose  names  and  characters  are 
already  so  familiar  to  the  young,  as  not  to  need  anything  like 
descriptive  delineation,  except  so  far  as  to  indicate  that  rank 
and  dignity  which  they  hold  in  the  annals  of  human  greatness. 

Prominent  on  the  pages  of  the  Gospel  history,  and  marked 
by  every  eye,  there  stand  forth  two  young  men  bearing  the 
same  name,  though  greatly  dissimilar  both  as  to  character,  and  as 
to  outward  appearance — John  the  Baptist,  and  John  the  Evan- 
gelist. Called  in  early  life  to  the  great  mission  of  the  gospel  of 
God — called  to  bear  an  active  part  in  that  great  work  for  which 
the  young  men  and  the  old  men,  of  all  preceding  generations  had 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  317 

been  preparing  the  way — and  endued  with  grace  and  wisdom 
from  on  high,  they  were  destined,  each  in  his  own  peculrar  sphere 
and  oflBce,  to  exert  an  influence  on  all  posterity,  by  the  intro- 
duction and  establishment  of  Christianity,  as  the  religion  which 
must  ultimately  conquer  the  world.  So  far  as  we  can  ascer- 
tain, they  were  each  about  thirty  years  of  age,  when  they 
appeared  upon  the  great  stage  of  actual  conflict  for  God  and 
the  gospel.  The  one,  coming  in  the  spirit  and  power  of  Elias 
— clad  indeed  in  the  rough  garb  and  wearing  the  austere  aspect 
of  that  greatest  of  all  the  ancient  prophets — emerges  from  the 
wilderness,  where  he  had  spent  the  riper  years  of  his  youth  in 
communion  with  nature  and  with  God,  and  as  the  forerunner 
of  the  great  Messiah,  stands  on  the  banks  of  Jordan  and  utters, 
in  the  hearing  of  the  ten  thousands  of  Israel  there  assembled, 
that  long  predicted  voice — "  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at 
hand  ;  prepare  ye  the  way  of  the  Lord."  The  other,  early 
called  into  the  family  of  Jesus,  where  he  is  accustomed  to  lean 
upon  the  Master's  bosom,  and  where  doubtless  his  early  attain- 
ments in  grace  and  purity,  hgd  won  for  him  the  title  of  "  belov- 
ed disciple,"  although  probably  the  youngest  of  the  apostolic 
band,  stands  forth  with  all  the  ardor  and  energy  of  youth  to 
fulfill  the  high  commission — "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and 
preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature."  The  one,  as  the  last  and 
greatest  of  all  the  prophets — a  burning  and  a  shining  light — 
ushered  in  the  morning  of  Zion's  glory,  and  then  passed  away. 
His  work  was  great  and  soon  done.  His  fidelity  and  zeal  won 
for  him  an  early  grave  and  a  martyr's  crown.  The  other,  as 
the  last  and  most  Mest  of  all  the  apostles,  was  permitted  first 
to  close  the  evangelical  record,  and  then,  by  his  wonderful 
apocalypse,  to  close  the  cannon  of  inspiration — tarrying  on 
earth  long  enough  to  see  that  cause,  in  which  he  had  spent  his 


318  REPRESENTATIVE   YOUNG   MEN 

years,  both  of  youth  and  manhood,  estabUshed  amongst  all 
nations. 

Shall  we  mention  other  examples  ?  In  Timothy,  who  had 
known  the  Scriptures  from  his  childhood,  we  behold,  as  it  were 
the  connecting  Hnk  between  the  young  men  of  ancient  and  of 
modern  times.  In  him  as  a  faithful  soldier  of  the  cross,  as  a 
preacher  of  the  gospel  of  peace,  and  as  a  pastor  in  the  church 
of  Christ,  the  young  ministers  of  all  subsequent  times,  have 
found  an  admirable  exemplar  for  their  own  instruction  and 
encouragement.  Through  the  inspired  directions  given  to  him, 
many  a  youthful  herald  of  the  cross  has  learned,  so  to  temper  a 
burning  enthusiasm  with  the  wisdom  of  age,  as  practically  to 
verify  the  precept  of  the  great  apostle — "  Let  no  man  despise 
thy  youth."  And  of  that  apostle  himself,  what  shall  we  now 
say  ?  What  might  we  not  say  of  Paul,  as  a  young  man  I  of 
Paul,  the  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews,  the  disciple  of  Gamaliel,  the 
young  persecutor,  the  young  convert  to  the  faith  of  Jesus — 
sacrificing  all  his  prospects  of  wordly  glory,  and  bringing  all 
his  learning,  all  his  energies,  all  his  eloquence,  to  defend  and 
to  propagate  the  cause  of  the  crucified  Nazarene  I  But  it  is 
enough,  at  present,  barely  to  mention  his  name,  and  with  it,  to 
close  our  list. 

From  the  rapid  and  extensive  survey  which  we  have  now 
taken  of  the  broad  fields  of  Scripture  biography,  you  see  what 
distinguished  honor  God  has,  from  the  beginning,  conferred 
upon  young  men,  in  carrying  forward  the  grand  interests  of  his 
kingdom  in  this  world.  You  have  seen  what  responsibihties 
they  have  borne,  what  achievements  they  have  made,  what 
destinies  they  have  fulfilled,  in  the  great  drama  of  human  his- 
tory, during  its  first  forty  centuries.  And  the  part  performed 
by  the  young  men  of  the  Bible,  was  but  a  type  of  what  has  been 


OF   THE    BIBLE.  319 

done  by  young  men  in  all  subsequent  ages.  In  every  field  of 
discovery  and  achievement,  many  of  the  greatest  and  most  en- 
during works  which  have  been  accomplished  on  earth,  have 
been  begun  and  often  finished,  by  men,  before  they  had  reach- 
ed the  meridian  of  life.  This  is  as  true  of  the  evil,  as  of  the 
good.  The  history  of  the  world — the  history  of  the  church — 
nay,  the  history  of  redemption  itself,  in  an  important  sense,  has 
been  written  in  the  lives  of  young  men.  Perhaps"  it  is  not  too 
much  to  say,  that  the  greatest  amount,  both  of  evil  and  of 
good,  which  all  men  have  done,  they  have  done  while  they  were 
yet  young  and  strong.  This,  we  know  is  true  of  many  of  the 
must  remarkable  characters  in  history.  Lafayette,  in  his 
very  boyhood,  volunteered  to  fight  the  battles  of  America,  and 
before  he  was  twenty-five,  had  won  the  confidence  of  Washington 
the  admiration  of  the  world,  and  a  name  forever  embalmed  in 
the  memories  of  a  free  people.  Alexander  the  Great  had  con- 
quered the  old  world,  and  laid  the  foundations  of  the  third 
great  empire  of  antiquity,  before  he  had  reached  the  age  of 
thirty-three.  At  a  similar  age,  Scipio  Africanus,  the  noblest 
of  all  the  Romans,  had  carried  the  war  of  his  country  into 
Africa,  and  had  won  the  prize  of  victory  over  the  veteran, 
and,  till  then,  invincible  Hannibal.  Napoleon  had  fought  his 
most  brilliant  battles,  formed  his  grand  schemes  of  universal 
empire,  and  filled  the  world  with  his  fame,  before  he  was  twenty- 
nine.  Luther  had  kindled  the  fires  of  the  great  Reformation 
before  he  was  thirty-five  ;  and  Calvin,  deducing  a  finished  sys- 
tem of  theology  from  the  Scriptures,  had  published  his  immor 
tal  "  Institutes,"  before  he  was  twenty-seven.  The  younger 
Pitt  was  prime  minister  of  Great  Britain  in  his  twenty-third 
year  ;  and  before  he  was  thirty,  stood  preeminent  amongst  the 
statesmen  of  Europe.     Henry  Martyn,  leaving  the  halls  of  science 


320  REPRESENTATIVE   YOUNG   MEN 

and  honorable  preferment  at  home  to  preach  Christ  to  the  per 
ishing,  with  heroic  self-sacrificing  toil,  completed  a  translation 
of  the  New  Testament  into  two  languages  of  the  East,  and  fell 
a  martyr  to  the  work  at  the  age  of  thirtj-bne.  Whitefield  and 
Summerfield  were  each  immortal  at  twenty-five,  having  filled 
both  hemispheres  with  the  fame  of  an  eloquence  and  success  in 
preaching  the  gospel,  which  had  not  been  surpassed  -since  the 
days  of  the  apostles.  Our  own  great  statesmen,  the  three 
American  magnates  of  this  nineteenth  century,  Webster,  Clay 
and  Calhoun,  had,  each  before  the  age  of  thirty,  won  such 
triumphs  of  eloquence  at  the  bar  and  on  the  forum,  as  led  men 
to  predict  that  meridian  of  splendor  and  old  age  of  glory,  which 
they  lived  to  verify.  And  when  did  the  world  ever  behold 
a  more  splendid  combination  of  all  the  rare  and  glorious  attri- 
butes that  make  the  young  man  immortal,  than  it  has  just  wit- 
nessed in  our  countryman.  Dr.  Kane,  who,  before  he  was 
thirty-three,  had  trodden  the  most  inaccessible  parts  of  our 
planet,  and  ^t  thirty-five  returned  to  die  a  martyr  to  the  boldest 
attempt  that  science  and  humanity  ever  made* to  reach  the 
pole  and  save  the  lost  ! 

Such  then  is  the  glory,  such  the  responsibility,  to  which  God  by 
the  voice  of  his  providence,  and  by  all  the  voices  of  past  history, 
calls  the  young  men  of  this  generation.  But  to  conclude,  and 
to  recapitulate  :  we  have  now  contemplated  the  young  man  of 
the  Bible,  as  one  of  the  most  remarkable,  the  most  instructive 
and  attractive  features  of  the  book.  We  have  seen  him  in  all 
his  shades  of  character,  and  fortune.  We  have  marked  him 
farst  in  the  person  of  Adam,  coming  forth  as  lord  of  a  new  world, 
in  the  glorious  image  of  his  Divine  Author.  We  have  seen  him, 
a  little  after,  sealed  as  the  first  of  martyrs  in  Abel,  and  branded 
as  the  first  of  murderers  in  Cain.    We  have  seen  him  next, 


OF   THE    BIBLE.  321 

under  the  inspiration  and  the  wonder-working  providence  of 
God,  becoming,  in  Joseph,  the  deliverer  and  the  mighty  ruier 
of  the  land  of  Egypt.  We  have  gazed  upon  the  moral  gran- 
deur of  his  character  in  Moses,  as  that  of  a  self-denying  and  yet 
triumphant  believer  in  the  unseen,  the  eternal,  the  Divine.  We 
have  followed  him  next  through  the  din  of  battle,  and  admired 
the  lofty  bearing  of  the  patriot  soldier,  and  the  invincible, 
God-fearing  hero,  in  the  youthful  David  and  Jonathan.  We 
have  soon  after  read  the  wretched  doom  of  Absalom,  and  learned 
from  him,  what  a  young  man  is,  when  he  becomes  a  rebel  son, 
a  demagogue  and  usurper,  a  votary  of  vanity  and  a  victim  of 
ambition.  Then  again,  we  have  seen  the  young  man  as  sove- 
reign, standing  on  the  perilous  heights  of  hereditary  power, 
combining  the  character  of  poet,  preacher,  philosopher  and 
statesman,  in  the  full-orbed  glory  of  Solomon,  or  that  of  civil 
and  religious  reformer  in  the  young  and  much  lamented  King 
Josiah.  Still  further  on,  amid  the  terrors  of  a  dungeon,  a  lion's 
den,  and  a  fiery  furnace,  we  have  looked  upon  the  young  man  as 
he  appears  in  Daniel  and  Jeremiah,  arrayed  in  the  stern  and 
awful  grandeur  of  a  prophet  of  God,  or  in  the  three  children  of 
the  captivity,  as  the  uncompromising  confessor,  witness  and 
defender  of  the  true  religion.  Later  still,  in  John  the  Baptist,  we 
have  heard  the  young  man  from  the  wilderness,  in  that  sublime 
voice,  which  seemed  to  concentrate  all  the  prophetic  voices  of  the 
past  in  one,  calling  men  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come,  and  to 
*'  behold  the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world." 
And  the  last  of  all,  in  the  seraphic  St.  John,  in  the  admirable 
Timothy,  and  in  the  indefatigable  and  incomparable  Paul,  we 
have  found  the  young  man,  under  a  new  and  nobler  dispensation 
of  liglit  and  of  love,  proclaiming  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation,  in 
the  name  of  Jesus,  to  the  perishing  nations  of  the  whole  world. 


822  EEPEESENTATIVE   YOUNG   MEN- 

And  now,  if  anything  more  were  needed  to  place  the  crown  of 
immortal  glory  upon  the  brow  of  youth,  it  is  the  fact,  that 
Jesus  was  himself  a  young  man,  and  that,  by  dying  and  rising 
again,  as  such,  he  remains  a  young  man  forever.  The  incarnate  son 
of  God,  before  he  was  thirty-four,  had  fulfilled  his  great  mission 
on  earth,  finished  his  grand  work  of  atonement  and  salvation, 
won  all  his  triumphs  over  death  and  hell,  unbarred  the  prison  of 
the  grave,  glorified  God,  and  purchased  immortality  for  man — 
and  had  done  all  in  the  character  of  a  young  man.  As  such 
the  first  Adam  had  fallen  and  lost  all.  It  was  fit  then,  that  the 
second  Adam,  while  yet  in  the  dew  of  youth,  should  stand  for 
us,  and  restore  the  ruins  of  the  fii'st.  And  it  is  a  pleasing 
thought,  that  in  the  person  of  Jesus,  the  inhabitants  of  heaven 
now  behold,  not  only  the  restoration  of  our  human  nature  from 
the  ruins  of  the  fall,  but  its  exaltation  and  apotheosis  in  a  state 
of  immortal  youth. 

These  things  the  angels  desire  to  look  into.  And  into  these 
things  the  nations  of  the  earth  will  desire  to  look  more  and  more, 
Christ  is  already  the  central  object  of  all  history,  and  all  human 
thought.  It  is  the  name  which  thrills  most  deeply  through  the 
great  heart  of  the  world — which  absorbs  its  daily  activities,  and 
its  midnight  meditations,  as  no  other  name  has  ever  done 
before.  Be  the  field  of  discussion  what  it  may,  be  the  writers 
or  speakers  who  they  may — atheist  or  infidel,  deist  or  skeptic, 
rationalist  or  Christian — the  all-absorbing  theme  is  still  the  same, 
the  one  ceaseless  thought  is  about  Christ.  The  oflBcers  of  the 
Jewish  Sanhedrim  unconsciously  uttered  a  great  prophecy  as 
well  as  a  great  truth  when  they  said,  "Never  man  spake  like 
this  man."  For  whether  he  spoke  divinely  or  humanly,  in  words 
wisdom  or  of  fable,  as  a  Jewish  Rabbi  or  as  the  son  of  God, 
one  thing  is  certain,  he  so  spoke  that  the  world  has  never  ceased 


OF   TUE   BIBLE. 

to  speak  of  hira,  and  never  can.  Even  the  infidels  and  ra- 
.ionalists  of  these  modern  times,  from  Spinoza  down  to  Strauss, 
by  every  volume  which  they  have  published,  and  every  effort 
they  have  made  to  crush  his  cause,  have  only  fulfilled  the  pro- 
phecy and  added  fresh  confirmation  to  that  ancient  record,  that 
no  man  ever  spoke  like  Jesus.  Such  herculean  efforts,  made 
from  generation  to  generation,  and  still  renewed  after  eighteen 
hundred  years  of  defeat,  to  prove  him  a  common  man,  and  his 
religion  but  a  dream,  by  the  very  intensity  of  their  zeal,  recoil 
and  refute  themselves  ;  for  they,  if  nothing  else,  bear  witness, 
that  he  was  no  common  man,  and  that  his  religion  is  one  of  the 
strongest  vitalities  in  the  world.  The  wider  and  stronger  the 
opposition,  the  stronger  and  clearer  is  the  proof,  that  the  young 
Nazarene,  though  leaving  the  world  after  a  few  brief  years  of 
public  teaching,  had  nevertheless  so  lived,  so  spoken,  and  so 
died,  that  all  the  world,  infidelity  not  excepted,  has  heard  his 
voice  and  felt  his  power.  By  a  public  ministry  of  three  years 
spent  in  toil  and  privation,  and  ending  in  a  death  which  the 
world  regarded  as  his  complete  and  everlasting  overthrow, 
he  produced  effects  upon  the  world,  greater  and  more  enduring 
than  any  other  man,  public  or  private,  old  or  young,  ever  pro- 
duced. So  that  from  the  lowest  conceded  facts  of  his  life, 
regarded  simply  as  a  history,  it  is  impossible  to  turn  away 
without  believing  the  truth  of  his  doctrine  as  a  theology. 
Admit  the  plain  facts  of  his  manhood,  and  there  is  no  escape 
from  the  logical  conviction  of  his  Godhead.  The  only  solution 
of  such  a  Son  of  man,  is  in  the  conception  of  such  a  Son 
of  God.  Admit  the-  "  Christ  of  History,"  as  the  point  has 
been  well  argued  by  a  recent  author,  and  you  admit  all  thai 
the  Christ  of  Revelation  ever  claimed  to  be. 


824.  SCIENCE    AND   THE   SAGES 


CHAPTER  VII. 

.SCIENCE  AND  THE  SAGES  OF   THE  BIBLE. 

Relations  and  Bearings  of  the  Subject — The  Moral  Science  of  the  Bible — The  Bible  od 
Physical  Science — First  Scientific  Characteristic — Second  Characteristic — Third 
Characteristic — Additional  Illustrations — The  Sages  of  the  Bible. 

I. RELATIONS    AND    BEARINGS    OF    THE    SUBJECT. 

No  apology  we  trust,  will  be  demanded  for  selecting  the 
Science  and  Sages  of  the  Bible,  as  a  topic  entitled  to  stand 
amongst  those  which  have  already  claimed  our  attention  in 
these  pages.  Some,  perhaps,  may  be  ready  to  ask  at  first, 
what  good  can  come  out  of  such  a  subject — so  narrow  in  its 
range,  so  barren  in  all  its  aspects,  so  unattractive  in  its  very 
announcement  ?  The  Bible,  it  is  freely  admitted,  is  not  a 
scientific  book  in  any  ordinary  sense.  Whatever  may  be  its 
claims  to  literature,  it  does  not  profess  to"  teach  the  natural 
^lences  ;  it  is  not  received  as  an  authority  in  the  scientific 
world  ;  nor  do  its  writers,  anywhere,  lay  claim  to  the  title  of 
philosopher  or  sage. 

It  does,  indeed,  sometimes  speak  of  science,  and  of  the  Gre- 
cian philosophers  :  but  it  is  only  to  put  us  on  our  guard 
against  the  babblings  of  a  vain  philosophy,  and  the  oppositions 
of  a  science  falsely  so  called.  It  is  evident  at  a  glance,  tliat 
the  book  of  God  was  not  inspired  for  the  purpose  of  being  a 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  325 

text  book  of  natural  science.  It  was  not  given  as  a  history 
of  the  wonderful  phenomena  of  the  material  universe,  but  as  a 
revelation  of  man's  origin,  relations,  duties  and  destiny.  But 
still,  our  theme,  whether  barren  or  fruitful  in  itself  considered, 
when  viewed  in  all  its  relations  and  bearings,  becomes  one  of 
attractive  interest  to  all  those  who  wish  to  know,  not  only  what 
the  Bible  has  said,  but  especially  what  it  has  not  said,  about 
science  and  philosophy.  We  deem  it  of  essential  importance 
to  all  the  lovers  of  truth,  and  especially  to  our  educated  youth 
who  will  soon  be  called  to  guide  the  opinions  of  others,  that 
the  line  which  defines  the  true  relations  between  science  and 
the  Bible,  should  be  distinctly  drawn  and  clearly  understood. — 
It  is  our  object  to  aid  in  pointing  out  the  landmarks  of 
that  important  boundary.  It  has  been  well  remarked  by  one 
of  our  scientific  men,  that  the  subject  may  be  presented  in  such 
a  way  as  to  "impart  instruction,  remove  difficulties  from  the 
minds  of  the  scrupulous,  and  deepen  the  convictions  of  re- 
ligious truth  ;  but  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  easy  so  to  exhibit 
it  as  to  excite  bigotry  and  prejudice,  alarm  the  con- 
scientious and  do  injury  both  to  science  and  religion."  Obvi- 
ously it  is  a  subject  of  profound  interest  alike  to  the  scientific, 
the  literary  and  the  religious  man. 

It  may  be  claimed  for  the  Bible,  that  in  the  broadest  sense, 
it  is  a  book  of  learning,  as  learning  existed  in  the  ancient 
world.  It  comes  down  to  us,  laden  with  the  rich  stores  of 
ancient  oriental  wisdom — the  treasured  lore  of  the  first  forty- 
centuries  of  human  history.  It  tells  us  of  men,  like  Moses, 
learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians,  and  Solomon  filling 
the  world  with  the  fame  of  his  intellectual  greatness.  It  tells 
of  Eastern  sages,  like  Daniel,  "  skillful  in  Chaldean  wisdom,  cun- 
ning in  knowledge,   understanding  science,"  and  of  Western 


326  SCIENCE   AND   THE    SAGES 

scholars  like  Paul,  brought  up  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel,  and 
versed  in  all  Rabbinical  and  Grecian  literature. 

And  although  it  has  given  no  clue  to  scientific  discovery, 
and  shed  no  light  upon  the  brilliant  pathway  of  our  modern 
science,  in  her  explorations  of  material  nature  ;  still,  it  has 
not  been  without  its  influence  in  stimulating  and  directing  the 
progress  of  the  modern  scientific  world.  Although  the  Bible 
has  had  no  mission  to  teach  philosophy  how  to  cast  her  mea- 
suring lines  into  the  sea,  or  sink  her  shafts  into  the  heart  of  the 
earth,  or  stretch  her  telescopes  through  the  untrodden  fields 
of  space  ;  nevertheless  it  has  been  a  book  of  intense  and  undy- 
ing interest  to  the  most  scientific  minds,  not  only  because  it  con- 
tains the  Divine  wisdom  and  Eternal  life,  but  because  of  the  pecu- 
liar and  wonderful  relations  which  it  sustains  to  science  in  general 
and  to  the  spirit  of  scientific  discovery  in  particular.  In  its  gen- 
eral tone  and  spirit  everywhere  encouraging  scientific  investi- 
gation, and  yet  nowhere  pointing  the  way  to  scientific  dis- 
covery ;  everywhere,  speaking  freely  and  fully  of  the  diversified 
phenomena  of  the  earth  and  heavens,  yet  nowhere  explaining 
anything  or  professing  to  teach  anything  on  such  subjects  ;  it 
has,  in  fact,  so  adjusted  itself,  from  the  beginning,  to  each  ad- 
vancement in  science,  that  it  would  seem  to  have  anticipated  all 
its  discoverie>  ;  and  so  far  from  having  received  any  damage 
from  all  these  new  worlds  of  wonder  which  it  has  itself  evoked 
from  the  vast  deep  of  things  unknown,  the  Bible  has  only 
awakened  additional  interest  in  its  own  revelations,  and  gained 
fresh  confirmation  for  its  own  claims  from  every  realm  of  liv- 
ing nature,  and  every  department  of  the  known  universe. 

Its  language  has  adjusted  itself  to  the  vocabulary  of  univer- 
sal science,  in  precisely  the  same  way  that  its  prophecy  has 
adjusted  i:self  to  the  facts  of  universal  history.     The  history 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  327 

of  the  world  has  famished  a  thousand  opportunities  of  refuting 
the  prophecies  of  Scripture,  had  its  prophecies  been  false. 
Even  so,  the  discoveries  of  modern  science  have  furnished  in- 
numerable opportunities  for  disproving  the  alleged  facts  of 
Scripture,  had  these  facts  been  unfounded.  That  the  Bible 
should  have  maintained  its  ground  so  long  and  so  well,  under 
the  searching  analysis  and  concentrated  light  of  our  modern 
inductive  philosophy,  will  appear  all  the  more  wonderful  when 
we  consider  how  all  other  ancient  books  of  religion,  and  schools 
of  philospphy,  and  systems  of  mythology,  and  anthropology, 
have  given  way  before  it  like  the  stars  of  night  before  the 
morning  sun.  How  long  could  the  Shasters  of  India,  or  the 
astrologies  of  Egypt,  the  hoary  religious  system  of  China,  or 
the  astronomy  of  Ptolemy,  the  cosmology  of  the  intellec- 
tual Greeks  and  Romans,  or  even  the  partly  borrowed  Koran 
of  Mohammed,  stand  before  the  light  of  our  modern  astronomy? 
But  th&  Bible  has  been  standing  before  it,  ever  since  the  days 
of  Copernicus  and  Galileo,  and  still  stands  in  the  meridian 
of  its  light  as  little  dimmed  or  daunted  by  its  brightness,  as 
the  eye  of  the  eagle  by  the  sun. 

"Hitherto,"  says  Gilfillan,  "  the  result  of  all  new  discoveries 
has  been,  to  dart  new  notice,  new  light,  new  interest,  upon  the 
pages  of  this  marvelous  book,  which,  like  the  full  moon,  shines 
undimmed,  whatever  stars  come  up  the  midnight.  In  her  ma- 
jestic simplicity,  she  fears  no  rival  among  all  those  new  telesco- 
pic orbs  which  are  arriving  every  hour,  and  can  suffer  no  eclipse 
from  them  ;  and  neither  need  the  Bible,  in  its  pure,  mild,  and 
crystal  sphere,  be  alarmed  at  all  the  starry  revelations  of  sci- 
ence." No,  the  Bible  has  no  more  to  fenr  from  science,  than 
science  has  to  fear  from  the  Bible.  Why  should  either  have 
anything  to  fear,  from  the  other  ?  Are  they  not  both  revelations, 


828  SCIENCE    AND   THE    SAGES 

though  written  in  different  books,  of  the  same  infinitely  wise  and 
perfect  God  ?  And  must  not  the  true  teachings  of  God  in  the 
volume  of  his  works,  be  always  harmonious  with  the  true  teach* 
ings  of  God  in  the  volume  of  his  words  ?  There  can  be  no 
greater  absurdity  than  to  say  that  true  science  can  ever  come 
into  real  conflict  with  any  true  interpretation  of  the  Bible  ;  for 
it  is  just  equivalent  to  saying,  that  God  can  contradict  himself. 
No  ;  let  all  such  fears  be  buried  with  the  theologians  of  Gal- 
ileo's times,  who  thought,  that  if  the  earth  moved,  the  Bible 
must  fall ;  and  that  to  prevent  so  great  a  catastrophe,  they 
must  stop  the  mouth  of  the  philosopher,  by  imprisonment  or 
death.  Poor  way  that  to  stop  the  earth  from  moving  or  the 
Bible  from  falling  I  True  science  and  true  theology  are  friends  ; 
and  they  may  well  afford  to  be  fast  friends  now,  in  the  day  ot 
their  triumph,  for  they  have  gone  hand  in  hand,  through  many 
a  day  of  peril  in  their  past  history.  They  point  upward  to 
the  same  great  Author,  and  onward  to  the  same  .destiny 
of  perfect  knowledge.  Ever  since  the  Bible  has  had  a  fair 
foothold  amongst  men,  all  the  science  in  the  world  that  has 
been  worthy  of  the  name,  has  been  found  closely  clus. 
tering  around  it,  and  ready  to  make  common  cause  in  its  de- 
fence. Modern  heathenism  has  produced  no  true  science  in 
any  department.  The  ancient  classical  nations  produced  very 
little  that  outlived  their  downfall.  Mohammedanism  has  ndded 
nothing  to  the  stock,  that  may  not  be  traced  to  the  Bible. 
All  that  the  barren  soil  of  infidelity  and  atheism  has  ever  pro- 
duced, has  been  produced  under  the  fostering  influences  of  the 
Bible.  Historically,  it  is  a  most  important  and  significant  fact 
that  the  Bible,  so  long  as  it  has  stood  at  all,  has  been  standing 
at  the  head  of  the  science  of  the  world  ;  and  science  has  made 
no  advancement  anywhere  on  earth  without  this  book.     All  our 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  329 

modern  physical  sciences,  which  have  sprung  np  under  the  in- 
ductive method  of  the  Baconian  philosophy,  owe  their  existence 
to  that  spirit  of  free  inquiry  which  the  Bible  created  among  the 
nations  of  Europe  about  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. They  are  all  daughters  of  the  Great  Reformation,  as  that 
is  of  the  Bible.  And  in  return,  the  religion  of  the  Bible  owes 
to  modern  science,  her  first-born,  fairest  child,  an  eternal  debt 
of  gratitude  for  the  noblest  vindication  of  her  own  celes- 
tial origin,  that  has  ever  been  made  for  her  since  the  age 
of  miracles.  For  modern  science  to  assail  the  Bible,  is  as 
if  the  child  should  lift  an  ungrateful  hand  against  the  mother 
that  had  nursed  its  infancy.  And  for  the  Bible  to  assail  science, 
is  but  for  the  mother  to  turn  against  the  daughter  who  bears  her 
image,  and  has  done  her  most  honor  in  the  eyes  of  all  mankind. 


II. THE  MORAL  SCIENCE  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

But  in  what  sense  is  the  Bible  a  scientific  book,  and  what  do 
we  mean  when  we  speak  of  the  science  of  the  Bible  ?  In  a 
general  sense,  all  our  knowledge  of  truth,  of  whatever  kind,  even 
historical,  is  sometimes  called  science.  And  in  that  sense,  the 
Bible  being  all  true,  might  be  said  to  be  full  of  science.  But 
this  is  not  the  usual  meaning  of  the  word.  Strictly  and  pro- 
perly speaking,  the  term  science  is  applied  only  to  that  part  of 
our  knowledge  which  has  been  systematized  ;  whose  facts  and 
principles  have  been  classified  and  arranged  in  a  definite 
order,  by  the  process  of  the  inductive  philosophy.  And  in  this 
sense,  it  is  obvious,  that  the  Bible  is  not,  and  was  not  intended 
to  be,  a  scientific  book. 

At  this  point,  however,  we  meet  with  an  important  distinction 


330  SCIENCE   AND   THE    SAGES 

arising  out  of  the  very  nature  of  the  sciences.  If  we  bok  at  the 
whole  circle  of  the  sciences,  we  shall  find,  that  they  may  all  be 
arranged  under  two  grand  divisions,  in  reference  to  the  two  dis- 
tinct fields  of  human  inquiry,  the  moral,  or  spiritual  sciences  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  physical  or  natural  sciences  on  the  other,  cor- 
responding somewhat  to  the  ancient  distinction  of  physics  and 
metaphysics.  Now,  to  one  of  these  departments  the  Bible 
holds  a  very  different  relation  from  that  which  it  holds  to  the 
other.  In  the  one,  it  has  scarcely  spoken  at  all,  and  does  not 
claim  to  be  a  teacher.  In  the  other,  it  has  spoken,  fully,  earn- 
estly, and  with  all  the  authority  of  a  teacher  come  from  God  ; 
but  never  even  here,  in  a  scientific  form,  never  in  the  language 
of  the  schools. 

On  the  subject  of  the  natural  or  physical  sciences,  which  con- 
stitute the  peculiar  glory  of  our  modern  philosophy,  and  whose 
domain  lies  in  the  material  universe,  the  Bible  is  almost 
silent,  giving  us  neither  the  materials  nor  the  forms  of  a  com- 
plete science — giving  some  of  its  facts,  but  none  of  its  theories. 
But  on  all  those  branches  of  knowledge,  in  which  classical  anti- 
quity gloried  most,  and  gloried  in  vain,  whose  domain  lies  in 
the  unseen  world  of  thought — the  spiritual,  immaterial  universe 
relating  to  God,  to  the  nature  of  truth  and  virtue,  to  the 
nature  of  man,  as  a  social,  moral,  intellectual  and  immortal 
being — on  all  these,  the  Bible  has  spoken  clearly  and  abun- 
dantly, giving  us  all  the  materials  of  the  science  of  God  and 
man,  but  not  in  a  scientific  form — giving  us  the  essential  facts, 
without  the  theory,  of  all  moral  science. 

Whilst,  then,  we  might  search  in  vain,  through  the  Bible, 
for  any  systematic  science,  such  as  we  find  in  our  books  of 
chemistry  or  physics,  still  we  may  find  there  the  elements  of 
the  very  highest  science.    We  find  indeed  all  the  fundamental 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  331 

facts  and  principles  of,  at  least,  four  of  the  most  important 
branches  of  universal  science.  These  are  revealed  on  the 
sacred  pages,  just  as  the  true  system  of  astronomy  was  revealed 
on  the  face  of  the  sky  before  the  days  of  Copernicus,  and 
chemistry  on  all  the  objects  of  nature,  long  before  the  days  of 
the  alchemists.  True  science,  you  know,  may  exist  in  its  ele- 
ments, long  before  there  is  any  scientific  eye  to  read  it  aright, 
or  reduce  those  elements  to  scientific  order. 

First,  we  have  the  sublime  science  of  God  himself,  in  all  his 
perfections,  in  all  his  relations  to  all  creatures  ;  which  we  call 
the  science  of  Theology,  the  grand  centre  of  universal  science. 

Secondly,  we  have  the  great  science  of  moral  truth  and  vir- 
tue, of  right  and  wrong  in  their  relation  to  human  duty,  which 
embraces  the  broad  field  of  Ethics,  or  Moral  Philosophy. 

Thirdly,  we  have  the  science  of  the  soul  itself,  the  human 
mind  in  its  relation  to  truth  and  virtue,  which  is  known  by  the 
terms, Psychology,  Mental  Philosophy,  or  Metaphysics  in  general. 

Fourthly,  we  have  the  science  of  law  and  government,  the 
august  and  noble  science  of  man  collectively — man  as  a  social 
being  and  a  citizen  ;  which  may  be  called  Jurisprudence,  Poli- 
tical Economy,  or  Legislative  science  ;  which  has  been  thus 
beautifully  personified  by  Hooker  :  "  Of  law  there  can  be  no 
less  acknowledged,  than  that  her  seat  is  the  bosom  of  God, 
her  voice  the  harmony  of  the  world.  All  things  in  heaven  and 
earth  do  her  homage,  the  very  least,  as  feeling  her  care,  and 
the  greatest  as  not  exempt  from  her  power.  Both  angels  and 
men,  and  creatures  of  what  condition  soever,  though  each  in  a 
different  sort  and  name,  yet  all  with  one  uniform  consent,  ad- 
mire her  as  the  mother  of  their  peace  and  joy." 

Now  these  four  great  branches  of  human  knowledge,  which 
agree  in  this,  that  they  are  all  founded  upon  moral  evidence^ 


332  SCIENCE   AND   THE    SAGES 

and  all  relate  more  or  less  to  moral  truth,  are  as  justly  entitled 
to  be  called  scientific,  and  constitute  in  fact,  as  regular 
sciences,  as  any  of  those  branches  which  we  call  natural  o^ 
physical.  Theology  is  as  truly  a  science  as  chemistry,  and 
Ethics  as  geology.  And  all  of  these  great  sciences  of  God  and 
the  soul,  of  truth  and  duty,  are  written  in  the  Bible,  just  as  the 
physical  sciences  are  written  in  the  great  volume  of  nature. 
Upon  all  these  vast  and  important  fields  of  scientific  inquiry, 
the  word  of  God  has  shed  a  truer  and  a  brighter  light  than 
all  other  books,  and  oracles,  and  schools  of  philosophy,  of 
ancient  or  modern  times.  In  Fpeaking  of  the  science  of  the 
Bible,  therefore,  we  must  ever  bear  in  mind,  that  whatever  of 
scientific  truth  it  contains,  is  found  there,  not  in  logical  classi- 
fied forms,  but  in  its  original  essential  elements  ;  not  as  geology 
and  astronomy  are  found  in  the  text-books  of  the  schools,  but  as 
geology  and  astronomy  are  found  in  the  field-books  of  the  earth 
and  heavens.  We  gather  up  these  facts  and  principles,  these  scat- 
tered materials  of  science,  and  apply  to  them  the  process  of 
interpretation,  classification,  and  inductive  reasoning,  and  thus 
educe  the  grand  sciences  of  Theology,  Ethics,  Psychology,  and 
Civil  Jurisprudence,  The  method  by  which  this  is  done,  is  afs 
truly  Baconian,  and  the  result  of  it  as  truly  scientific,  as  that 
which  was  pursued  by  Newton  in  the  "  Principia,"  or  La  Place 
in  the  "Mecanique  Celeste,"  or  Humboldt  in  the  "Cosmos." 
r,  In  these  four  kindred  branches  of  universal  science,  Theolog- 
ical, Ethical,  Psychological,  and  Legislative,  the  Bible  has  been 
the  great  text-book  and  storehouse  to  all  modern  nations.  It 
has  not  only  supplanted  all  the  systems  of  antiquity,  but  it  has 
successfully  driven  every  opposing  modern  system  from  the 
field,  and  now  it  reigns  without  a  rival  over  the  whole  realm  of 
Cimstendom. 


OF  THE   BIBLE. 

The  Mosaic  code,  modified  by  the  new  law  of  the  gospel,  is 
the  basis  of  all  the  jurisprudence  and  legislation  of  the  present 
civilized  world.  And  except  in  the  departments  of  commercial, 
maritime,  and  international  law,  which,  from  the  peculiar  char- 
acter of  the  Hebrew  Commonwealth,  had  not  been  contem- 
plated in  the  Mosaic  code,  the  world  has  not  added  much  to 
its  original  stock,  nor  mucli  improved  on  its  Scripture  model. 
In  theology,  the  science  of  the  Supreme  Being,  there  is,  of 
course,  no  other  authority  known  to  civilized  nations,  but  the 
Bible.  For  even  what  is  called  Natural  Theology,  was  a  great 
deep  of  darkness  and  confusion,  until  this  surer  word  of  revela- 
tion came,  to  call  liglit  out  of  darkness,  and  order  out  of  chaos. 
The  same  is  true  of  all  moral  or  ethical  science.  Our  existing 
books  and  systems,  so  far  as  they  have  any  claim  to  scientific 
truth,  are  all  founded  upon  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  And  as  to 
Psychology,  or  the  pliilosophy  of  the  human  mind,  it  is  obvious 
that,  whilst  all  the  ancient  writers  have  sunk  into  oblivion,  all 
the  modern,  from  Locke  to  the  present  day,  have  ended  very 
nearly  at  the  point  where  they  began,  and  that  is  just  where  the 
Bible  left  the  subject  so  long  ago. 

By  this,  we  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  Biljle  has  anywhere 
given  us  a  treatise  on  the  human  understanding,  as  Locke  and 
Reid,  Stewart  and  Cousin,  have  done  ;  but  only  that  the  Bi- 
ble has  furnished  the  best  materials  for  this  and  other  kindred 
sciences  :  first,  because  the  Bible,  being  inspired  of  God  for 
the  purpose,  has  had  a  deeper  insight  into  human  nature  than 
any  other  oracle,  and  has  given  us  the  truest,  fullest  represen- 
tation of  man  in  all  his  moods,  and  of  man's  mind  in  all  its 
exercises,  which  the  world  has  yet  seen.  It  was  to  be  expected 
that  a  book  from  God  and  a  book  on  the  soul,  would  tell  ua 
most,  both  about  God  and  the  Soul. 


334  SCIENCE    AND   THE    SAGES 

The  Bible  has  held  the  mirror  up  to  nature  with  an  infallible 
and  unsparing  hand,  and  has  reflected  back  to  us  a  true  image 
of  ourselves,  which  we  may  study  at  our  leisure  ;  just  as  we 
might  study  the  same  thing  in  Shakspeare.  And  this  will 
serve  to  illustrate  our  meaning.  Who  does  not  know  that 
a  very  good  and  true,  and  even  full,  philosophy  of  the  human 
mind  might  be  educed  from  the  writings  of  the  bard  of  Avon  ? 
Why  so  ?  Because  he  too  held  the  mirror  up  to  nature,  long 
enough  and  steadily  enough,  to  catch  a  true  picture  of  the 
workings  of  the  soul,  in  all  its  moods  and  exercises.  Even  so, 
but  infinitely  better,  is  the  true  philosophy  of  the  whole  inner 
man  revealed  to  us  in  the  perfect  mirror  of  God's  word,  not  as 
a  science,  but  as  the  constituent  elements  of  science. 

In  this  grand  department,  then,  of  the  moral  or  spiritual 
sciences,  we  claim  for  the  Bible,  and  it  is  a  claim  which  we 
trust  you  are  fully  prepared  to  indorse,  that  it  has  given  us  the 
only  true  and  perfect  theology  in  the  world  ;  that  it  has  given 
us  the  only  safe  and  solid  foundation  for  virtue  and  ethical  phi- 
losophy ;  that  instructing  us  as  to  the  origin,  nature,  aim,  and 
destiny  of  the  soul,  it  has  given  us  the  only  sure  and  settled 
psychology  ;  and  that,  coming  with  authority  from  God,  and 
the  sanctions  of  a  future  state,  it  has  unfolded  all  the  great 
fundamental  principles  of  human  government,  legislation  and 
jurisprudence. 


III. THE    BIBLE    ON    PHYSICAL    SCIENCE FIRST     CHARACTERISTIC. 

But  leaving  now  these  broad  fields  of  science,  to  the  cultiva- 
tion of  which  the  Bible  has  contributed  so  much,  let  us  pass  to 
the  contemplation  of  those  for  which  directly  it  has  done  so  lit- 


OF   THE    BIBLE.  335 

tie.  Let  us  consider  the  relation  in  which  the  Bible  stands  to 
the  pliysical  sciences,  which  constitute  the  peculiar  glory  of 
our  modern  philosophy.  It  is  in  this  direction,  that  the  genius 
of  the  age  in  which  we  live  is  bending  all  its  steps,  and  taxing 
all  its  mighty  energies.  And  it  is  in  this  quarter,  if  anywhere, 
that  the  respective  friends  of  science  and  the  Bible,  are  in  dan- 
ger of  misunderstanding  and  collision.  Here,  on  the  field  of 
material  nature,  where  science  now  seems  to  be  the  strongest, 
and  the  most  confident  of  her  strength,  some,  perhaps,  without 
due  reflection,  might  be  ready  to  think  the  Bible  will  be  found 
weakest  and  most  vulnerable.  And  truly,  for  every  educated 
man,  we  know  not  a  subject  of  wider  interest,  and  greater 
practical  importance,  than  the  clearing  up  of  this  relation,  be- 
tween the  Bible  and  physical  science.  Let  us  now  endeavor 
to  point  out  some  of  the  distinctive  landmarks. 

And  here,  the  first  fact  that  arrests  attention,  is  the  remark- 
able reticency  of  the  Bible  on  the  whole  subject  of  physical 
science — its  dignified  reserve  and  taciturnity — its  forbearance  to 
philosophize — its  profound,  and,  as  we  may  say,  most  impres- 
sive silence,  on  all  the  questions  and  theories  of  natural  science. 

The  wonder  is  not  that  the  sacred  writers  have  given  us 
nothing  as  to  the  true  theory  of  the  universe  ;  for  that  they 
could  not  know  without  a  special  revelation,  and  it  was  no 
part  of  Divine  inspiration  to  reveal  it  ;  but  the  surpassing 
wonder  is,  that  they  should  have  abstained  from  giving  us  any 
thing  that  is  false — abstained  from  giving  any  theory  at  all. 

For  whilst  they  were  writing  the  Bible,  the  world  was  full 
of  all  sorts  of  systems  and  philosophies  ;  full  of  magicians  and 
astrologers  and  theorizers  about  the  heavens  and  the  earth  j 
full  of  cosmogonists,  and  fabled  oracles,  and  pretended  divin- 
ities, peoplftfg  all  the  woods,  and  fields,  and  waters.     And  yet, 


336  SCIENCE   AND   THE    SAGES 

the  sacred  writers  have  steered  their  way  through  all  these 
wonders  of  the  times,  and  have  not  in  a  single  line,  committed 
themselves  to  one  of  the  multiplied  absurdities,  that  crowd 
all  other  contemporaneous  writings.  Amidst  all  these  sophists 
and  idolaters  they  stood,  and  wrote  their  sublime  history,  in' 
such  a  way,  that  the  pure  current  of  their  narrative  rolled  on, 
from  beginning  to  end,  uncontaminated  by  any  of  the  systems 
of  four  thousand  years. 

This  too  they  have  done,  while  speaking  freely  and  fully,  on 
all  the  diversified  facts  and  phenomena  of  universal  nature,  as 
known  to  the  ancients.  But  nowhere  upon  their  pages  is  a 
single  theory  discussed,  or  even  propounded,  as  to  any  part  of 
the  material  universe  ;  and  so  profound  and  unbroken  is  this 
silence,  that  although  men  have  been  searching  these  pages  for 
many  centuries  with  the  closest  scrutiny,  yet  we  are  not  aware 
that  any  line  of  them  has  ever  led  to  the  first  scientific  dis- 
covery on  the  one  hand,  or  involved  a  single  scientific  blunder 
on  the  other. 

Nothing  can  well  be  more  wonderful  than  this.  When  we 
consider  with  what  fullness  and  minuteness  of  detail,  the  Bible 
has  described  the  chief  objects  of  material  nature,  animate  and 
inanimate,  throughout  the  vast  domain  of  the  vegetable,  ani- 
mal, mineral  and  atmospheric  kingdoms — how  freely  and  how 
frequently  it  has  spoken  of  earth,  air,  water  and  fire — how  it 
has  spoken  of  the  origin  of  the  earth  and  heavens,  the  sun, 
moon,  and  stars,  the  thunder  and  lightning,  heat  and  cold,  day 
and  night,  summer  and  winter — how  it  has  spoken  of  the  tribes 
of  men,  the  beasts  of  the  forest,  the  birds  of  the  air,  the 
fishes  of  the  sea,  the  plants  of  the  field — spoken  of  everything 
that  hath,  and  everything  that  hath  not,  breath — when  we 
consider  all  this,  must  it  not  appear  infinitely  remarkable,  that 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  337 

the  sacred  book  has  never  committed  itself  to  any  of  the  ten 
thousand  absurdities  of  antiquity,  nor  advanced  a  single  phi- 
losophical dogma,  which  modern  science  has  exploded  ? 

"  The  Hebrew  language,"  as  used  in  the  Old  Testament,  says 
Herder,  "  contains  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  distinct 
botanical  terms."  And  yet  the  Bible  does  not  teach  any  sys- 
tem of  Botany.  It  gives  us  no  system  of  Astronomy,  and  yet 
it  is  constantly  speaking  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  from  the  sun 
shining  in  his  strength,  and  rejoicing  as  a  strong  man  to  run  a 
race,  to  the  faintest  star  that  peepeth  through  the  eyelids  of 
the  evening  twilight.  It  treats  not  of  animal  Physiology,  and 
yet  it  describes  the  varied  parts  and  functions  of  our  "fearfully 
and  wonderfully  made"  animal  frame,  from  the  "  blood  which  is 
the  life  thereof,"  to  the  very  hairs  of  our  heads.  It  has  noth- 
ing to  do  with  Geology  as  a  science,  and  yet  it  tells  of  up- 
lifted floods,  and  heaving  mountains,  and  rending  rocks,  and 
submerged  continents,  and  is  ever  speaking  of  the  hills  and 
waters  in  their  endless  phenomena.  It  contains  no  system  of 
Zoology,  and  yet  it  describes  all  kinds  of  breathing  things,  from 
the  leviathan  of  the  seas,  to  the  lion  of  the  forest  ;  and  from 
the  lion  down  to  the  moth  upon  our  garments.  It  makes  no 
pretensions  to  a  system  of  Natural  History,  and  yet  it  contains 
accurate  accounts,  so  far  as  they  go,  both  of  the  flora  and  the 
fauna  of  all  the  ancient  countries  bordering  the  Mediterranean, 
from  the  cedar  of  Lebanon  to  the  hysop  on  the  wall,  and  from 
the  ostrich  of  the  desert  to  the  sparrow  that  falleth  to  the 
ground. 

It  gives  us  no  explanation,  no  theory,  no  system,  and  scarce- 
ly any  classification.  But  what  is  most  remarkable,  when  it 
does  classify,  it  is  found  to  be  correct.  Without  any  apparent 
aid   from  science,  it  sometimes    seems  to  hit  upon  an  order 

15 


338  SCIENCE   AND   THE   SAGES 

which  the  science  of  after  ages  approves.  For  example,  when 
in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  it  gives  us  a  series  or  classifica- 
tion of  all  the  living  creatures,  that  fill  up  the  vast  scale  of 
existence,  between  man  at  the  head  and  the  invertebrate  ani- 
mals at  the  foot,  how  wonderful  is  it  that  in  its  four  divisions 
of  beasts,  birds,  reptiles  and  fishes,  it  should  have  given  us 
precisely  that  arrangement  which  our  advanced  modern 
science  has  proved  to  be  the  true  order  of  nature. 

While  however  it  gives  us  little  classification  on  any  subject, 
it  gives  us  facts  on  almost  all — facts  and  phenomena,  true  to 
life  and  nature,  because  attested  by  the  senses  of  eye  and 
ear  witnesses,  and  then  recorded  by  the  pen  of  inspiration.  It 
transmits  its  record  of  facts,  leaving  us  to  dispose  of  them  as 
we  may  in  the  light  of  advancing  knowledge  ;  just  as  the  med- 
ical philosopher  disposes  of  the  facts  which  were  observed  and 
recorded  by  Hippocrates,  in  Greece,  some  two  thousand  years 
ago. 

Says  an  eminent  British  naturalist  :  "  The  intention  of  Scrip- 
ture is  not  scientific  description  ;  yet,  where  we  can  now  ascer- 
tain the  true  meaning  of  the  text,  the  imagery  drawn  from  na- 
tural history  is  always  forcible,  correct  and  effective,  even  where 
it  treats  the  subject  under  the  conditions  of  the  contemporary 
popular  belief."  And  one  of  our  ablest  American  authorities, 
Lieutenant  Maury,  is  reported  to  have  remarked  recently 
in  a  public  lecture,  that  "in  his  investigations  of  science, 
he  had  always  found  that  whenever  he  could  meet  with  any- 
thing in  the  Bible  on  the  subject,  it  afforded  him  a  firm  plat- 
form." 

Now  few  persons  are  aware  of  the  frequency  and  fullness 
with  which  the  Bible  has  spoken  on  many  of  the  visible  phe- 
nomena of  the  natural  world.     For  instance,  unusual  as  such 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  839 

words  would  seem  to  be,  and  remote  from  its  common  topics,  it 
has  mentioned  "  snow  "  and  "  frost,"  in  more  than  thirty  pas- 
sages, and  the  "  stars  "  in  more  than  forty.  But  whenever  it 
has  spoken,  whether  little  or  much,  its  statements  are  remarkable 
alike  for  their  accuracy  as  to  facts,  and  their  freedom  from  any 
thing-  like  theorizing. 

You  know  liow  full  the  Bible  is,  of  references  and  allusions 
to  the  healing  art  ;  how  it  describes  diseases  and  the  remedies 
for  disease  ;  how  it  speaks  of  physicians  and  apothecaries,  and 
embalmers  from  the  days  of  Moses  down  to  Him,  who  was  the 
great  physician  of  souls.  Yet,  has  it  uttered  no  oracle,  com- 
mitted itself  to  no  dogma,  as  to  any  system  or  science  of  med- 
icine. This  is  indeed  remarkable,  when  we  remember  its  con- 
stant reference  to  the  leprosy  and  other  diseases  and  their 
cures  during  an  authorship  of  fifteen  hundred  years,  and  a  his- 
tory of  four  thousand. 

And  here  we  may  be  allowed  to  mention  a  singular  and  cu- 
rious fact  which  has  not  often  been  noticed.  It  is  this  :  al- 
though the  Bible  speaks  of  so  many  diseases,  and  remedies  for 
disease — so  many  outward  applications  for  the  body  in  disease, 
such  as  the  washings  and  sprinklings  for  the  leprosy,  the  balm 
of  Gilead,  the  plaster  of  figs  in  Hezekiah's  case,  the  oil  and 
wine  of  the  good  Samaritan,  the  water  and  clay  of  our  Sa- 
viour's miraculous  cures,  and  even  the  leaves  of  the  tree  for  the 
healing  of  the  nations,  still  there  is  not  one  recorded  case  of 
a  remedy  for  disease,  taken  internally,  in  all  the  book.  No,  not 
a  single  instance  of  any  medicine  being  administered,  that  had 
to  be  swallowed.  Strange  as  it  may  appear,  to  us  who  are  ac- 
customed to  live  on  medicine,  from  Genesis  to  Revelation,  there 
is  not  one,  unless  that  be  an  exception,  in  which  the  apostle 
prescribes    to    Timothy,    a   "  little   wine    for    his    stomach's 


340  SCIENCE    AND    THE    SAGES 

sake  and  liis  often  infirmities."  And  this,  we  think,  is  as  far  from 
establishing  a  precedent  for  medical  practice,  as  it  is  from  jus- 
tifying strong  drink  as  a  beverage. 

But  to  pass  on  ;  these  illustrations  are  sufficient  to  show 
with  what  fullness  and  minuteness  the  Bible  has  spoken  of 
the  facts  of  nature,  without  broaching  any  theory  of  nature. 

In  view,  then,  of  this  fullness  on  all  the  visible  phenomena  of 
nature,  how  do  you  account  for  this  profound  silence — this  ap- 
parently guarded  reticency  of  the  Bible,  as  to  any  theory  or 
explanation  of  nature  ?  How  is  it  that  speaking  so  fully  and 
dwelling  so  long  in  the  midst  of  all  the  wonders  of  which  our 
modern  science  treats,  the  Bible  has  never  trespassed  on  one 
foot  of  the  ground  which  modern  science  has  claimed  as  her 
own  ? 

To  us  there  is  but  one  solution.  It  is  because  there  was 
a  superhuman — even  a  Divine  intelligence,  ever  present  to 
superintend  and  to  guide  the  pen  of  the  sacred  writers,  as  ac- 
tive and  as  potent  in  preserving  them  from  what  was  false  in 
science,  as  in  giving  them  what  was  true  in  religion.  So  that 
the  very  silence  of  tlie  Bible  on  all  questions  of  physical  science, 
may  be  regarded  as  one  of  its  internal  evidences — as  an  unan- 
swerable argument  for  its  Divine  inspiration.  And  on  this  point 
we  may  adopt  the  striking  remarks  of  Trench  in  reference  to 
another  subject  :  "  Nor  is  it  only  what  Scripture  says,  but  its 
very  silence  which  is  instructive  for  us.  It  was  said  by  one 
wise  man  of  another,  that  more  might  be  learned  from  his 
questions,  than  from  another  man's  answers.  With  yet  higher 
truth  might  it  be  said,  that  the  silence  of  Scripture  is  oftentimes 
more  instructive  than  the  speech  of  other  books  ;  so  that  it  has 
been  likened  to  a  dial,  in  which  the  shadow,  as  well  as  the  light, 
informs  us." 


OF   TUE    BIBLE.  34:1 

We  are  told  ia  the  proverbs  of  Solomon,  that  "  it  is  the 
glory  of  God  to  conceal  a  thing," — that,  "  a  fool  uttereth  all 
his  mind,  but  a  wise  man  keepeth  it  in  till  afterwards."  And 
so,  the  Bible  seems  everywhere  to  convey  the  impression,  that 
it  has  not  uttered  all  its  mind,  and  that,  so  far  from  exhausting 
its  knowledge,  it  might  have  told  us  infinitely  more  than  it  has 
seen  fit  to  do.  And  well  would  it  be  for  the  world,  if  men 
w^ould  imitate  the  example,  at  least  so  far  as  not  to  utter  their 
judgments  on  any  and  every  question  of  science  and  religion, 
before  they  have  had  the  time  or  the  means  for  examination. 
The  part  of  wisdom  is  to  hold  our  judgment  in  abeyance  on  all 
unexamined  questions  of  learning,  and  like  the  sacred  writers, 
always  know  a  little  more  than  we  appear  to  know,  leaving 
something  to  be  found  out  "  afterwards."  It  would  save  us 
from  many  a  vain  delusion,  and  "  many  a  foolish  notion." 


IV. SECOND    SCIENTIFIC    CHARACTERISTIC. 

This  brings  us  to  notice  another  remarkable  feature  of  the 
Bible,  in  its  relation  to  the  natural  sciences  ;  showing  us  the 
way,  by  which  it  has  steered  so  clear  of  all  theories  and  all 
absurdities  on  these  great  subjects.  It  is  this  ;  that  the  sacred 
writers  have  uniformly  spoken  of  the  phenomena  of  nature, 
according  to  the  usual  language  of  men,  in  their  daily  inter- 
course. They  have  spoken  of  nature,  according  to  the  appear- 
ances of  nature,  and  never  in  the  vocabulary  of  science.  And 
the  notable  thing  is,  that  they  are  as  free  from  the  technicalities 
of  ancient,  as  of  modern  science.  They  have  taught  nothing, 
they  have  written  nothing,  in  the  language  of  the  schools, — 
not  even  ethics,  not  even  theology.     They  always  speak,  God 


342  SCIENCE    AND   THE    SAGES 

himself  always  speaks,  after  the  manner  of  men,  in  the  ordinary 
phraseology  of  life.  As  well  observed  by  Gaussen,  with  them 
the  sun  rises,  the  sun  sets,  the  sun  moves,  the  sun  stops,  the 
earth  remains  firm,  as  it  seems  to  do.  All  things  are  spoken 
of  precisely  as  they  appear  to  the  senses. 

But  here  an  objection  has  been  raised.  It  has  been  asked  : 
"  Why  did  not  the  Creator  so  inspire  the  sacred  historians,  as 
to  make  them  speak  in  the  vocabulary  of  true  science,  and  make 
them  know,  or  at  least  appear  to  know,  before  we  did,  the  true 
theory  of  the  universe,  the  principle  of  gravitation,  the  size  and 
distances  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  the  rotary  motion  of  our 
globe,  its  periodical  revolution,  and  the  relative  immobility  of 
the  sun  1" 

Now,  you  will  perceive,  that  this  question  just  resolves  it- 
self into  another  ;  viz.  "  Why  did  not  God  give  a  revelation  to 
teach  us  the  physical  sciences  ?"  And  to  this,  it  is  a  sufficient 
answer  to  say,  that  he  wisely  chose,  that  we  should  exercise 
onr  minds  in  learning  them,  from  the  great  book  of  nature, 
where  he  had  written  them  all  at  the  beginning.  There  was 
no  need  of  a  new  revelation  to  teach  science,  when  in  the  ample 
scrolls  of  nature,  men  already  had  a  revelation,  which  has  in 
fact  been  found  all-suSicient. 

But,  suppose  the  sacred  writers  had  been  made  to  speak  in  a 
language  contrary  to  appearances,  so  as  to  suit  the  vocabulary 
of  our  most  advanced  sciences.  What  then  ?  How  would  the 
whole  ancient  world,  in  their  ignorance  of  the  experimental 
facts  of  science,  have  understood  this  prophetic  language  of 
science  ?  We  shall  presently  see,  that  they  had,  in  the  Bible, 
some  remarkable  expressions  of  this  very  kind,  which  they  did 
not,  and  could  not  understand,  for  this  very  reason,  that  they 
had  no  means  of  verifying  them  experimentally.     Unable  to 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  343 

appreciate  those  which  were  given,  what  benefit  could  they 
have  derived  from  having  more  ?  That  which  would  appear 
beautiful  and  instructive  to  us,  in  the  light  of  our  experimental 
philosophy,  would  have  been  a  dead  letter  to  them.  And  no 
man,  before  the  days  of  Copernicus,  would  have  been  able  to 
decipher  the  record,  and  tell  what  the  letter  meant. 

No  ;  God  hath  wisely  chosen  the  universal  language  of 
appearances,  as  the  vehicle  of  a  revelation  intended  for  all  men. 
Because  the  appearances  of  nature  are,  from  generation  to 
generation,  the  same  ;  whilst  the  vocabulary  of  science  is  con- 
stantly changing.  The  stars  shine,  just  as  they  did  centuries 
ago  :  the  winds  blow,  the  rains  descend,  the  waters  roar  now, 
as  they  did  then.  The  whole  face  of  the  earth  and  heavens, 
wears  about  the  same  aspect  to  our  eyes,  that  it  wore  in  the 
eyes  of  Abraham  and  Job,  Methuselah  and  Noah. 

Hence  the  language  of  appearances,  which  in  all  ages  is  the 
language  of  daily  intercourse,  and  always  too  the  language  of 
poetry,  is  the  most  certain,  intelligible,  and  permanent  lan- 
guage in  the  world.  But  as  physical  science,  from  its  very 
nature,  must  be  always  progressive  ;  and  as  our  present  ad- 
vanced science  is,  after  all,  but  an  approximation  to  the  truth  ; 
so,  its  vocabulary  is  ever  changing  ;  and  if  the  Bible  had  spoken 
in  the  scientific  dialect  of  our  times,  who  can  tell  us,  that  this 
would  have  suited  the  higher  science  of  ages  yet  to  come  ? 

Moreover,  as  many  of  these  sciences  are  yet  in  their  infancy, 
some  of  them  perhaps  not  yet  born,  whilst  even  the  oldest  are 
comparatively  young,  who  can  tell  us,  what  would  have  been 
the  proper  stopping-place,  had  the  sacred  writers  received  a 
scientific  inspiration  ?  As  has  been  most  significantly  asked, 
would  their  knowledge  "  have  reached  the  point  which  Newton 
attained,  or  only  the  point  where  Copernicus  stopped,  or  would 


34:4:  SCIENCE    AND    THE    SAQE8 

it  have  extended  over  the  heavens,  as  far  as  La  Place  and  Her- 
scIigI  have  carried  it  ?"  But  in  either  case,  it  would  have  still 
remained  incomplete  and  imperfect. 

Ko  ;  in  the  whole  domain  of  the  physical  sciences,  the  pur- 
pose of  Divine  revelation  was  to  give  ns,  as  a  starting-point, 
the  two  stupendous  truths,  of  a  Divine  Creator,  and  a  Divine. 
Providence  over  the  universe,  and  leave  all  minor  problems  to 
stimulate  the  curiosity,  and  develop  the  energies  of  man's  intel- 
lect. Hence  God  speaks  to  men,  in  the  Bible,  just  as  they 
speak  to  each  other  ;  not  like  a  philosopher  teaching  science  to 
a  class,  but  like  a  philosopher  speaking  to  the  children  and 
servants  of  his  household,  or  to  his  fellow  philosopher  in  their 
common  conversation.  For  you  may  observe,  that  in  the  ordi- 
nary intercourse  of  society,  men  of  science  themselves  speak  the 
language  of  appearances. 

This  point  has  been  forcibly  presented  by  Professor  Gaussen, 
in  his  work  on  the  Inspiration  of  Scripture. 

"  Would  men,"  says  he,  "  have  had  the  Bible  to  speak  like 
Sir  Isaac  Newton  ?  Would  they  forget,  that  if  God  should 
speak  about  scenes  of  nature — I  do  not  say  only  as  he  sees  it, 
but  as  the  scientific  men  of  future  ages  will  see  it — then  the 
great  Newton  himself  had  understood  nothing  of  it.  Besides, 
even  the  most  advanced  language  of  science  is  not  yet,  and 
never  will  be,  after  all,  anything  more  than  the  language  of 
appearances.  That  which  we  call  reality,  is  still  itself  only  an 
appearance  relatively  to  a  more  elevated  reality,  and  a  more 
profound  analysis.  And  who  can  tell  us  where  this  analysis  is 
to  stop  ?  The  expression  of  appearances,  provided  it  be  exact, 
is  then  among  men,  a  language  philosophically  correct  ;  and 
is  that  which  the  Scriptures  ought  to  have  adopted." 

"Would    you,"   says    he,    "have  the  Bible  speak  of  the 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  345 

scenes  of  nature  otherwise  than  as  we  speak  of  thera  to  one 
another,  in  our  domestic  or  social  intercourse  ? — otherwise 
even,  than  as  the  learned  themselves  speak  of  them  to  one 
another  ?  When  Sir  John  Herschell  asks  his  servants  to  send 
some  one  to  awake  him  exactly  at  midnight,  for  the  passage  of 
some  star  over  his  meridian  lens,  does  he  think  himself  obliged 
to  speak  to  them  of  the  earth,  of  her  rotation,  and  of  the 
moment,  when  she  shall  have  brought  their  nadir  into  the 
plane  of  her  orbit  ?  I  think  not.  And  if  you  ever  heard 
him  converse,  in  the  Observatory  of  Greenwich,  with  the 
learned  Airy,  you  would  see,  that  even  in  this  sanctuary  of 
science,  the  habitual  language  of  these  astronomers  is  still  just 
like  that  of  the  Scriptures.  For  them  the  stars  rise,  the  equi- 
noxes recede,  the  planets  advance  and  are  accelerated,  stop, 
retrograde.  "Would  you  then  have  Moses  speak  to  all  the  gen- 
erations of  men,  in  a  language  more  scientific  than  that  of  La 
Place,  Arago,  and  Newton  ?" 

It  is  delightful  too  to  find  scientific  men,  especially  the  scienti- 
fic men  of  our  own  generation,  often  recurring  to  the  old  fami- 
liar phraseology  of  the  Bible  when  they  would  give  utterance  to 
some  of  their  sublimest  conceptions.  Never  has  science  paid 
to  revelation  a  more  graceful  and  heartfelt  tribute  than  that 
which  has  been  offered  at  her  shrine  by  the  men  of  this 
nineteenth  century,  as  in  their  survey  of  the  wonderful  works 
of  God,  they  have  given  vent  to  their  emotions'  in  the  very 
words  of  God.  Every  reader  of  Maury's  Physical  Geography 
of  the  Sea  must  have  been  struck  with  this.  This,  too,  con- 
stitutes one  of  the  many  charms  of  Dr.  Kane's  graphic  volumes. 

Isolated  for  two  dreary  winters,  and  shut  up  in  his  little  ice- 
bound bh  of  life,  almost  as  effectually  as  if  he  and  his  heroic  band 
had  become  inhabitants  of  another  world,  how  did  he  feel  the 

15* 


346  SCIENCE   AND   THE   SAGES 

overpowering  grandeur  of  tlie  God  of  Inspiration.  "  I  have  trod- 
den the  deck  and  the  floes,  when  the  life  of  earth  seemed  sus- 
pended, its  movements,  its  sounds,  its  colorings,  its  compan- 
ionships ;  and  as  I  looked  on  the  radiant  hemisphere,  circling 
above  me,  as  if  rendering  worship  to  the  unseen  centre  of 
light,  I  have  ejaculated  in  humility  of  spirit,  '  Lord,  what  is 
man,  that  thou  art  mindful  of  him  V  " 


V. — THE   THIRD    CHARACTERISTIC. 

But  we  come  now  to  notice,  more  fully,  another  still  more 
remarkable  characteristic  of  the  Bible,  in  its  relation  to  the 
progress  of  the  physical  sciences.  It  is  one  which  has  been,  in 
part,  referred  to  already.  It  is  the  wonderful  facility,  with 
which  the  language  of  the  Bible,  in  certain  pregnant  expres- 
sions, adjusts  itself  to  every  new  scientific  discovery,  and  har- 
monizes with  every  successive  stage  of  scientific  advancement. 
After  all  the  gigantic  strides  which  she  has  made,  and  is  still 
making,  science  has  found  it  impossible  to  leave  th«  Bible  be- 
hind. However  deep  she  has  dug  into  the  surface  of  the 
earth,  and  however  high  she  has  climbed  to  build  her  nest 
among  the  stars,  she  soon  finds  that  the  Bible  is  close  at  her 
side.  Nay,  more  ;  when  she  has  taken  the  wings  of  the  morn- 
ing, and  said,  I  will  dwell  alone  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
sea,  and  when  she  has  found  some  far-ofif  island,  in  some  remote 
nook  and  corner  of  the  universe,  which  she  is  abont  to  call  her 
own,  by  the  right  of  prior  discovery,  she  finds,  to  her  amaze- 
ment, that  the  Bible  has  been  there  before  her — the  pioneer 
and  the  very  prophet  of  discovery  ! 

As  each  new  world  of  wonder  has  risen  upon  our  view,  and 


OF    THE    BIBLE.  347 

each  grand  discovery  has  added  its  light  tc  the  firmament  of 
our  science,  the  language  of  the  Bible  has  opened  to  receive  it, 
as  if  endued  with  the  elasticity  of  an  endless  life,  and  the  ex- 
pansive power  of  an  infinite  intelligence.  For  three  hundred 
years  past,  but  more  especially  during  the  last  hundred,  the 
spirit  of  philosophical  inquiry  has  been  knocking  at  every  door 
in  the  universe,  pushing  her  keen-eyed  look  of  discovery,  and 
her  bold  fingers  of  experiment,  into  every  field  of  the  heavens 
above,  and  every  recess  of  the  earth  and  ocean  beneath  ;  and 
from  all  these — from  the  rocks  and  caves  of  the  mountains, 
from  the  depths  of  the  sea,  from  the  torrid  and  frigid  zones,  from 
every  buried  generation  of  the  dead,  from  every  realm  of  ani- 
mated nature,  and  from  every  region  of  immensity,  she  has  been 
bringing  home  her  spoils,  her  trophies  of  power,  her  treasures  of 
wealth  and  wisdom,  her  monuments  of  art  and  industry,  to  beauti- 
fy and  adorn  her  temple — the  crystal  palace  of  universal  science, 
enriched  by  the  contributions  of  all  lands  and  of  all  worlds. 

And  still  the  language  of  the  Bible,  so  far  from  becoming 
antiquated  and  obsolete,  falls  in  and  harmonizes,  with  all  this 
advancement,  precisely  as  if  it  had  been  made  to  meet  the 
case,  and  had  from  the  beginning,  anticipated  all  the  brilliant 
discoveries  and  inventions  of  modern  times.  In  a  multitude  of 
passages,  its  pregnant,  oracular  words,  enigmatical  and  dark 
at  first,  have  become  luminous  with  the  progress  of  time. 
They  have  exactly  reversed  the  aspect  of  the  fiery  pillar  that 
separated  the  camp  of  Israel  from  the  Egyptians — they  have 
been  dark  to  those  that  went  before,  but  radiant  as  the  light  of 
heaven  to  all  who  have  come  after:  They  have  been  rendered 
clearer  and  clearer  by  the  progress  of  science,  precisely  as 
the  prophecies  obscure  before  their  fulfillment,  have  been  set  in  a 
clear  light  by  the  onward  course  of  history.     Yes,  the  Bible^ 


SttS  6cip:nce  and  tue  sages 

though  speaking  the  language  of  appearances,  abounds  in  these 
pregnant  expressions,  whose  full  force  and  beauty  lay  hidden 
on  the  bosom  of  its  narrative  for  thousands  of  years  ;  whose 
full  force  and  beauty  were  not  perceived  even  by  the  men  who 
wrote  them  ;  indeed,  never  could  have  been  perceived  without 
the  light  of  modern  science  ;  and,  perhaps  are  not  even  yet  un- 
derstood as  they  will  be,  by  the  men  of  future  ages,  who  shall 
be  blest  with  a  more  perfect  science.  We  hold,  that  in 
these  expressions,  the  language  of  the  Bible  has  been,  in  a 
measure,  prophetical  of  all  the  wonders  which  modern  science 
has  achieved.  '  And  there  are  pages  in  this  venerable  book, 
whose  meaning  has  been  developed,  verified,  and  fulfilled,  by 
the  progress  of  scientific  discovery,  as  truly  and  as  signally, 
as  any  of  its  special  predictions,  by  the  events  of  history.  Pro- 
phetically, it  contains  the  history  of  all  science,  as  it  does  the 
history  of  all  the  world. 

To  make  good  this  assertion,  let  us  select  a  few  illustrations. 
For  example,  see  how  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  has  enlarged 
itself  to  the  vast  compass  of  the  geological  ages,  prior  to  the 
existence  of  man.  A  chapter  swells  into  a  volume  ;  a  single 
verse  into  the  cosmogony  of  the  universe.  Does  geology  stretch 
our  vision  backward,  across  the  countless  ages  of  the  past,  as 
the  telescope  had  already  stretched  it,  over  the  trackless  fields 
of  immensity  ?  Does  it  call  for  myriads  of  years,  in  which 
whole  families  and  tribes  of  plants  and  animals  sprung  into 
existence,  flourished  for  a  season,  and  then  passed  away  from 
the  earth,  before  man  appeared  upon  the  stage  ?  This  opening 
chapter  of  inspiration  admits  it  all,  covers  it  all,  even  seems  to 
have  anticipated  it  all. 

Geology  traces  man  back  to  the  age  to  which  the  Bible 
refers  him,  and  not  one  step  farther  ;  both  agree,  that  it  was 


OF    TUE    BIBLE.  349 

late  in  the  era  of  creation,  before  he  commenced  his  wonderful 
career.  Geology  and  Moses,  also  nnite  in  tracing  the  earth 
itself,  back  to  the  very  same  point — to  "  the  beginning,"  and 
the  creating  hand  of  Omnipotence.  Geology  does  not  tell  us 
how  long  ago,  that  first  beginning  was  ;  nor  does  Moses.  But 
geology  and  Moses  are  agreed  in  this — that  there  was  a 
beginning  somewhere — a  Divine  creation  out  of  nothing.  The 
Bible  is  not  any  more  sparing  of  time,  than  is  geology.  It 
will  allow  all  the  time  that  science  asks  for,  short  of  eternity  ; 
and  geology  herself  will  not  allow  that.  Against  the  self-exis- 
tence, or  eternity  of  the  material  universe,  science  shuts  the 
door  as  effectually  as  the  Bible  has  done.  All  the  vast  epochs 
of  organic  life,  whose  history  geology  has  discovered  in  the 
earth's  strata,  graven  as  with  an  iron  pen,  and  chronicled  in 
the  rocks  forever — all  the  teeming  domains  of  vegetable  and 
animal  existence,  filling  up  those  periods,  whose  perished  forms, 
so  long  buried,  have  recently  been  disentombed — all  these 
geology  herself  has  traced  to  the  hand  of  a  Divine  Author  ; 
and  they  serve  the  double  purpose  of  magnifying  the  glory  of 
the  Creator,  while  they  illustrate  the  beauty  and  wisdom  and 
intelligence  of  this  venerable  book. 

Thus,  in  the  light  of  geological  science,  we  behold  wondrous 
things  in  God's  word,  which  otherwise  we  should  never  have 
known.  Thus  has  science  become  an  interpreter  of  revelation, 
making  its  words  assume  a  new  and  nobler  import,  its  facts  a 
larger  and  more  profound  significance.  In  the  light  of  geologi- 
cal discovery,  how  do  all  those  passages  rise  into  beauty  and 
grandeur,  which  connect  the  origin  of  the  earth  with  water  on 
the  one  hand,  and  its  destruction  with  fire  on  the  other  I  They 
seem,  thus  interpreted,  to  set  before  us  three  grand  geological 
cycles  ;  first,  the  "  earth  standing  out  of  the  water,  and  in  the 
water"— the    period    of    the   pre-Adamic   world;    next    the 


350  SCIENCE    AND    THE   SAGES 

"  heavens  and  the  earth,  which  are  now  kept  in  store,  reserved 
unto  fire  against  the  day  of  judgment " — the  present  order  of 
existence  ;  and  then  the  last  grand  era  of  a  "  new  heavens  and 
a  new  earth,  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness  " — the  consumma- 
tion of  all  things.  In  view  of  such  revelations,  might  we  not 
even  appropriate  the  exclamation  of  an  apostle  on  another 
subject  ; — "  Oh  the  depths  of  the  riches,  both  of  the  wisdom 
and  knowledge  of  God  !  how  unsearchable  are  his  judgments, 
and  his  ways  past  finding  out  !" 

But,  in  the  light  of  astronomical  science,  we  have  a  still 
more  remarkable  illustration  of  the  manner,  in  which  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Bible  seems  to  have  comprehended  and  antici- 
pated all  our  discoveries.  For  example,  hear  what  the  Bible 
says,  as  to  the  shape  and  position  of  the  earth.  It  was  not 
known  to  have  spoken  on  that  subject  at  all,  until  a  true  astro- 
nomy gave  us  a  light,  by  which  to  read  understandingly,  what 
it  had  said.  And  doubtless,  there  are  many  other  subjects,  on 
which  it  has  given  utterances,  which  we  have  not  yet  light 
enough  to  read  aright  ;  which  we  now  see,  as  through  a  glass 
darkly,  but  which  a  larger  knowledge,  hereafter,  will  enable  us 
to  see  with  open  vision.  But  what  has  it  said  about  the  shape 
and  position  of  the  earth  ? 

Says  the  book  of  Job,  "  He  stretcheth  out  the  north  over  the 
empty  place,  and  hangeth  the  earth  upon  nothing."  Again, 
"  He  hath  compassed  (or  encircled)  the  waters  with  bounds, 
until  the  day  and  night  come  to  an  end."  Says  Solomon, 
*'  When  he  prepared  the  heavens,  I  (wisdom)  was  there  ;  when 
he  set  a  compass  upon  the  face  of  the  deep  :"  that  is  a  "  circle," 
for  such  is  the  meaning  of  the  word,  "  compass,"  throughout 
the  Bible.  Says  Isaiah,  speaking  of  the  Almighty,  "He 
Bitteth  upon  the  circle  of  the  earth."  . 

How  wonderful  is  this  language  I     As  remarked  by  another, 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  351 

it  might  be  taken  as  a  fit  motto  for  the  last  treatise  on  astro- 
nomy, or  an  inscription  for  Lord  Rosse's  telescope,  or  Professor 
Mitchell's  observatory.  Did  Job,  Solomon,  and  Isaiah,  indeed 
know,  that  the  earth  was  a  circle — a  sphere  suspended  over  the 
empty  place — hung  up,  on  nothing,  in  the  fields  of  space  ?  If 
so,  they  were  far  in  advance  of  all  the  men  of  their  times,  and 
they  had  more  knowledge  of  astronomy,  than  the  world  has 
ever  given  them  credit  for.  But  if  not,  then  what  a  proof  is 
this,  of  an  infinite  intelligence,  pervading  their  thoughts,  and 
so  shaping  their  words,  as  to  anticipate  the  discoveries  of  our 
times,  without  shocking  the  prejudices  of  their  own  ! 

Again  :  of  the  fact  that  the  sacred  writers  have  been  in  ad- 
vance of  the  world  and  wiser  than  all  their  translators,  we  have  a 
striking  illustration,  in  the  use  of  our  word  "  firmament,"  to  de- 
note the  starry  heavens.  We  get  the  word,  in  this  usage,  from 
"  firmamentum  "  of  the  Latin  version,  and  that  introduces  it  as  an 
exact  synonym  for  "stereoma"  of  the  Greek  Septuagint,  both 
of  which  mean  something  hard,  solid,  firm.  But  when  we  go 
back  to  the  old  Hebrew  of  Moses,  we  find  that  the  original 
word,  which,  as  Gaussen  tells  us,  is  seventeen  times  used  to  de- 
note what  we  call  the  firmament,  or  starry  heavens,  has  another 
meaning  besides  that  of  hardness  and  solidity  ;  it  means  also 
the  expanse,  the  vacant  place,  the  ether,  the  far-reaching  re- 
gion, or  immensity.  Why,  then,  did  the  Greek  and  Latin  trans- 
lators use  only  stereoma  and  firmamentum  to  describe  the  sky  ? 
Because,  in  their  utter  ignorance  of  the  true  astronomy,  they  did 
not  know  as  much  about  the  nature  of  the  sky  as  Moses  did,  or 
rather,  as  that  infinite  intelligence  which  guided  the  pen  of 
Moses.  And  thus,  you  perceive,  that  with  all  our  science,  we 
still  follow  these  ancient  versions,  and  thus  we  are  constantly 
speaking,  like  Addison,  of  the  "spacious  firmament  on  high," 


352  SCIENCE    AND   THE    SAGES 

in  a  language  far  less  philosophical  than  that  which  Moses  used, 
when  he  called  it  "  rakea,"  the  expanse,  the  out-spread  empt^ 
space.  But  we  all  know  the  sky  is  not  hard,  and  does  not  even 
appear  hard,  though  we  call  it  the  firmament,  or  firm  place. 
Even  so,  let  us  not  hold  the  inspired  writers  responsible  for  as- 
serting or  believing  it  to  be  hard,  because  their  unscientific 
translators  have  made  them  call  it  "  stereoma  "  and  "  firmamen- 
tum."  Future  ages,  we  trust,  will  not  hold  us  responsible  for 
believing  it  hard,  because  we  have  been  made  to  call  it  the 
firmament. 

Still  further.  In  nothing  has  the  triumph  of  modern  science 
been  more  signal  than  in  its  enlargement,  so  to  speak,  of  all  the 
boundaries  of  the  senses — its  revelation  to  us,  of  a  universe,  out- 
side of  all  that  is  seen  by  the  naked  eye,  which  appears  abso- 
lutely illimitable,  well-nigh  infinite.  Whilst  geology  has  been 
opening  to  us,  worlds  on  worlds  in  the  cycles  of  the  past,  the 
telescope  has  been  disclosing  worlds  without  number,  in  the  un- 
trodden fields  of  immensity,  and  the  microscope  bringing  to 
light  new  worlds  of  wonder,  in  everything  around  us  and  be- 
neath us.  On  the  one  hand,  the  vast  magnitudes  and  distances 
of  the  material  universe,  made  known  by  the  telescope,  have 
seemed  to  dwarf  man  himself  into  an  insect,  an  atom  unworthy 
of  his  Maker's  care,  much  more  unworthy  of  his  love,  as  dis- 
played in  the  gospel.  But,, on  the  other  hand,  the  millions  of 
worlds  beneath  us,  as  revealed  by  the  microscope,  all  teeming 
with  life,  have  magnified  man  again,  and  raised  him  to  his  old 
dominion,  as  lord  of  all  the  creatures.  All  that  he  has  been 
losing,  in  the  scale  of  dignity,  by  the  telescope,  he  has  been 
gaining  by  the  microscope.  And  as  his  own  intellect  has  been 
the  discoverer  in  both  cases,  so  all  that  he  has  been  losing,  as 
a  mortal,  he  has  been  gaining,  as  an  immortal,  by  these  revela- 


OF    THE    BIBLE.  353 

tions.  Does  mortal  man  dwindle  into  comparative  insignificance 
before  the  vastness  of  the  material  universe,  as  if,  at  last,  matter 
had  triumphed  over  mind  ?  That  very  triumph  is  itself  the 
proof  of  the  majesty  and  the  victory  of  the  human  mind.  Be- 
cause, it  is  man's  mind  which  hath  thus  measured  and  mastered 
a  universe,  that  so  o'er-masters  him. 

And  does  man  appear  to  dwindle  into  nothing  as  geology 
brings  to  light  those  vast  teeming  creations,  and  gigantic  my- 
riad forms  of  life  that  preceded  him  on  the  stage  of  existence  ? 
Geology  herself  shall  reassert  his  dignity,  for  she  never  ceases 
to  hold  him  up  as  the  grand  terminal  head  and  apex  of  all  these 
foregoing  creations.  Hugh  Miller,  in  his  last  work,  the  "  Testi- 
mony of  the  Rocks,"  says  :  "  The  knowledge  of  the  geologist 
ascends  no  higher  than  man.  He  sees  all  nature  in  the  pre- 
Adamic  past,  pointing  with  prophetic  finger  towards  him.  The 
long  vista,  opened  up  by  his  science,  closes  with  the  deputed 
lord  of  creation,  with  man  as  he  at  present  exists  ;  and  w^hen, 
casting  himself  full  upon  revelation,  the  veil  is  drawn  aside,  and 
an  infinitely  grander  vista  stretches  out  before  him  into  the  future, 
he  sees  man — no  longer,  however,  the  natural,  but  the  Divine 
man — occupying  what  is  at  once  its  terminal  point  and  its 
highest  apex." 

And  then,  after  quoting  two  of  the  highest  living  authorities 
on  the  subject,  Professors  Owen  and  Agassiz,  to  the  effect,  that 
"  man  was  the  archetypal  idea  in  the  Divine  mind,"  and  the 
**  end  towards  which  all  the  animal  creation  has  tended  from 
the  first  appearance  of  the  first  Paloeozoic  fishes,"  he  goes 
on  to  remark  :  "  These  surely  are  extraordinary  deductions. 
'  In  thy  book,'  says  the  Psalmist,  '  all  my  members  were  writ- 
ten, which,  in  continuance,  were  fashioned,  when,  as  yet,  there 
was  none  of  them.'     And  here  is  natural  science,  by  the  voice 


354:  SCIENCE    AND    THE    SAGES 

of  two  of  its  most  distinguished  professors,  saying  exactly  the 
same  thing." 

Our  latest  science,  then,  leaves  man  just  where  she  found 
him,  even  where  the  Bible  placed  him  at  the  beginning,  a  little 
higher  than  the  beasts  that  perish,  a  little  lower  than  the  an 
gels — "  the  sura  total  of  all  the  animals  of  earth,"  and  yet  the 
image  of  God  in  the  flesh. 

"  Distinguished  link  in  being's  endless  chain, 
Midway  from  nothing  to  the  Deity, 
A  worm,  a  God." 

How  wonderful  !  how  profound  !  how  prophetic  I  how  true 
to  science  !  The  Bible  has'  not  placed  man  where  the  telescope 
alone  would  have  placed  him,  nor  where  the  microscope  alone 
would  have  placed  him  ;  but  where  the  two  together  have 
placed  him,  and  where  geology  places  him — at  the  head  of  the 
visible  creation,  at  the  foot  of  the  Divine  throne. 


VI. ADDITIONAL      IIXUSTRATIONS. 

We  have  said,  that  modern  scientific  discoveries  have  revealed 
a  range  of  thought,  a  force  and  beauty  of  expression,  in  the 
Scriptures,  which  never  had  been  appreciated  before,  and  never 
could  have  been  fully  appreciated  without  them.  Would  you 
have  a  practical  proof  of  this  ?  Go  and  read  a  treatise  on  as- 
tronomy, or  listen  to  a  course  of  popular  lectures  on  the  starry 
heavens,  until  conception  fails,  and  imagination  droops  her 
wing,  in  the  attempt  to  grasp  the  grandeur  of  the  material 
universe  :  and  then,  when  lost  and  bewildered  by  the  contem- 
plation, and  without  words  to  express  your  emotion,  just  open 


OF   THE    BIBLE.  356 

the  Bible  at  the  book  of  Job,  and  read  his  sublime  descrip- 
tions of  the  manifold  works  of  God  ;  and  see  how  those  grand 
questionings  and  responses  will  have  widened  out  to  meet  the 
dimensions  of  your  widest  thoughts  ;  "  Canst  thou,  by  search- 
ing, find  out  God  ?  Canst  thou  find  out  the  Almighty  unto 
perfection  ?  It  is  as  high  as  heaven  ;  what  canst  thou  do  ? 
deeper  than  hell  ;  what  canst  thou  know  ?  The  measure  there- 
of is  longer  than  the  earth,  and  broader  than  the  sea."  How 
is  it,  that  the  words  of  the  patriarch  express  our  feelings,  when 
gazing  on  the  wonders  of  the  universe  in  the  light  of  science, 
better  than  we  can  express  them  ourselves  ?  And  how  is  it, 
that  we  can  see  even  more  force  and  grandeur  in  the  patriarch's 
words  than  he  ever  saw  himself? 

Or,  if  you  please,  listen  to  the  sweet  Psalmist  of  Israel,  ex- 
claiming, in  wonder,  as  Jehovah  telleth  the  number  of  the 
stars,  calleth  them  all  by  their  names,  and  leadeth  out  their 
hosts  :  "  Such  knowledge  is  too  wonderful  for  me  ;  it  is  high, 
I  cannot  attain  unto  it.  Whither  shall  I  go  from  thy  Spirit, 
or  whither  shall  I  flee  from  thy  presence  ?  If  I  ascend  up  into 
heaven,  thou  art  there  ;  if  I  make  my  bed  in  hell,  behold,  thou 
art  there.  If  I  take  the  wings  of  the  morning,  and  dwell  in  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  sea  :  Even  there  shall  thy  hand  lead  me, 
and  thy  right  hand  shall  hold  me."  As  a  description  of  the 
omnipresence  of  the  Deity,  is  it  not  plain  that  this  language  as- 
sumes a  wider  range,  and  sweeps  the  chords  of  a  higher,  grander 
harmony  in  our  hearts,  than  it  could  have  done  in  the  hearts 
of  David's  contemporaries  ?  And  yet,  doubtless,  it  was  beauti- 
ful and  sublime  to  them.  But  to  us,  there  is  a  meaning  in  the 
words,  as  much  broader  than  the  words  themselves,  as  the  uni- 
verse of  modern  astronomy  is  broader  than  the  little  world  of 
the  ancients.     It  is  as  if  the  new-discovered  works  of  God  had 


356  SCIENCE   AND   THE   SAGES 

poured  fresh  light  upon  the  words  of  God,  and  found  tlieir  own 
grandeur  all  reflected  back  again. 

Take  another  example  from  the  eighth  Psalm  :  "  When  I 
consider  thy  heavens,  the  work  of  thy  fingers,  the  moon  and  the 
stars,  which  thou  hast  ordained  :  What  is  man,  that  thou  art 
mindful  of  him  ?  and  the  son  of  man  that  thou  visitest  him  ?  For 
thou  hast  made  him  a  little  lower  than  the  angels  :  and  hast 
crowned  him  with  glory  and  honor."  And  what  is  this  ?  It  is 
an  expression  of  wonder  at  the  great  condescension  of  God  in 
his  exaltation  of  man.  It  is  in  the  form  of  an  argument  drawn 
from  the  littleness  and  insignificance  of  man,  as  contrasted  with 
the  magnitude  and  glory  of  the  starry  heavens.  And  the  whole 
force  of  the  argument  lies  in  the  greatness  of  the  contrast. 

But  if  that  was  a  wonderful  contrast  in  David's  times,  what 
is  it  now  ?  If  that  was  an  argument  of  power  and  beauty  for 
the  Divine  condescension,  to  a  man  looking  at  the  heavens,  by 
night,  with  the  naked  eye,  what  an  argument  is  it  to  one  look- 
ing at  them  through  the  telescope  I  Oh  !  to  what  an  immeasur- 
able height  and  depth  and  length  and  breath,  is  the  Divine  con- 
descension magnified  now,  in  view  of  the  littleness  of  man  and  the 
greatness  of  these  telescopic  heavens  !  "  When  I  consider  thy 
heavens — in  all  their  vast  extent,  in  all  their  wealth  of  magnifi- 
cence and  glory — what  is  man,  that   Thou  art  mindful  of  him  !" 

Did  David  understand  astronomy  ?  Did  he  know  and  appre- 
ciate the  sublime  import  of  these  words,  and  the  full  force  of  this 
great  argument  for  the  condescension  of  God  ?  "  The  point  of 
view  he  thus  assumes,"  says  Gilfillan,  "  is  inexplicable,  except 
on  the  sui)position  of  his  entertaining  an  approximately  true 
notion  of  the  magnitude  of  those  starry  globes.  If  they  had 
appeared  to  him  only  a  few  hundred  bright  spangles  on  the 
black  robe  of  night,  what  was  there  in  them  so  to  have  dwarfed 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  357 

the  earth  with  its  vast  expanse  and  teeming  population  ?" 
There  is  force  in  the  question  ;  but  we  think  there  is  another 
and  better  explanation.  'Tis  not  that  David  understood  astro- 
nomy, even  approximately  ;  but,  that  He,  who  inspired  David's 
mind  and  guided  his  pen,  understood  it,  and  caused  him  to  write 
in  a  language  which  should  become  more  and  more  luminous 
with  the  progress  of  ages. 

But  we  may  allow  a  skeptic  here  to  select  his  own  ground. 
Either  David  did,  or  he  did  not  understand,  something  of  the 
vastness  of  the  material  heavens.  If  he  did,  then  he  had  a 
knowledge  of  astronomy,  utterly  unknown  to  all  the  ancient 
world  besides.  And  how  will  the  skeptic  account  for  that 
knowledge,  without  a  Divine  revelation  ?  But  if  he  did  not  ; 
then  he  spoke  in  a  language  which  was  as  far  in  advance  of  his 
knowledge,  as  the  Copernican  astronomy  is  in  advance  of  the 
Egyptian  or  Chaldean  astrology.  And  how  will  the  skeptic  ac- 
count for  that  without  a  divine  inspiration  ?  To  us  there  is  but 
one  solution  ;  there  is  an  intelligence  in  the  words  of  the  Bible, 
higher  than  the  words  themselves,  because  they  are  God's  words. 

Take  one  more  example  of  an  earlier  date.  We  are  told 
that  the  Almighty  brought  Abraham  forth  abroad  and  said — 
"  Look  now  toward  heaven  and  tell  the  stars  if  thou  be  able  to 
number  them  ;"  and  he  said  unto  him,  "  So  shall  thy  seed 
be."  Again  he  said,  "  I  will  multiply  thy  seed  as  the  stars 
of  the  heaven,  and  as  the  sand  which  is  upon  the  sea-shore." 

Long  afterwards,  Jeremiah  uses  similar  language,  saying — 
"  As  the  host  of  heaven  cannot  be  numbered,  neither  the  sand 
of  the  sea  measured  ;  so  will  I  multiply  the  seed  of  David."  The 
same  metaphor  is  used  again  in  the  book  of  Nehemiah  and  in 
the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews  ;  showing  that  it  was  a  favorite  one 
with  the  sacred  writers. 


358  SCIENCE    AND   THE    SAGES 

Now  you  will  observe,  in  all  these  passages,  that  the  Bible 
speaks  of  the  stars  precisely  as  modern  science  speaks  of 
them  :  that  is,  as  innumerable,  multitudinous  as  the  sands 
of  the  sea-shore.  But  how  did  the  sacred  writers  know 
without  the  telescope,  that  the  stars  were  numberless  like 
the  grains  of  sand  ?  Would  we  have  known  it  without  the  teles- 
cope ?  Did  the  world  in  fact  know  it  before  there  was  any  tel- 
escope ?  The  ancient  catalogues  of  Hipparchus  and  Ptolemy 
set  down  the  whole  number  of  the  stars,  at  one  thousand  and 
twenty-six.  And  our  own  astronomers  tell  us,  that  in  the 
clearest  night,  the  naked  eye  can  see  only  eleven  hundred 
and  sixty,  whilst  all  that  are  visible  to  one  watching  all  night 
at  the  equator,  only  amount  to  about  three  thousand.  Are 
we  then  to  suppose  the  Almighty  to  promise  Abraham,  merely 
that  his  posterity  should  equal  in  multitude,  the  one  thousand 
stars,  more  or  less,  which  he  could  see  and  count  in  a  clear 
night  ?  If  so,  how  would  such  a  figure  comport  with  the  idea 
of  a  great  nation,  in  which  all  other  nations  should  be  blest  ? 
And  if  so,  how  could  he  associate  this  limited  number  of  the 
stars,  with  the  countless  sands  of  the  sea-shore  ?  If  his  seed 
should  be  like  the  stars  and  like  the  sands  in  number  ;  then 
must  not  the  stars  be  numberless  like  the  sands  ?  Things  that 
are  equal  to  the  same  you  know  are  equal  to  one  another. — 
Whether  Abraham  drew  that  conclusion  or  not,  that  con- 
clusion is  legitimate. 

Thus,  you  see,  we  are  shut  up  to  the  necessity  of  either  gran- 
ting to  the  sacred  writers  a  knowledge  of  the  stars,  such  as  the 
telescope  alone  has  revealed  to  us,  or  ascribing  to  their  words 
a  higher  import  than  they  did  themselves.  In  either  case,  whe- 
ther Abraham  and  Jeremiah  knew,  by  logical  inference  from 
these  Divine  visions,  and  knew  for  the  first  time,   that  the 


OF  THE   BIBLE.  359 

stars  like  the  sands  were  innumerable  ;  or  whether  these  words 
of  the  Almighty,  intentionally  and  prophetically  comprehended 
this  idea  of  innumerability  without  their  comprehending  it — be  it 
either  way,  we  do  not  see  how  any  man  can  resist  the  convic- 
tion, that  the  book  is  an  inspired  revelation  from  God.  If  this 
is  not  a  demonstration  of  its  truth,  we  are  at  a  loss  to  know 
what  would  constitute  a  demonstration.  If  this  is  not  a  demon- 
stration, we  should  like  to  know  where  the  demonstration 
fails. 

Is  it  objected  that,  by  a  kind  of  optical  illusion,  the  stars 
appear  innumerable,  even  to  us,  as  they  do  to  every  casual 
and  superficial  observer  who  has  not  watched  them  nightly  ; 
and  hence  it  was  natural  for  the  Bible  to  speak  of  them  as  it 
does  of  the  sand,  according  to  appearances  ?  The  answer  is, 
that  we  cannot  suppose  Abraham  or  Moses  to  have  been  either  a 
casual  or  superficial  observer.  Living  as  they  did  in  the  age  of 
"  astrologers  and  star-gazers  and  prognosticators,"  living  so 
much  and  so  long  in  the  open  air,  and  leading  a  shepherd's  life, 
we  cannot  suppose  them  ignorant  of  that  astrology  which  con- 
stituted the  chief  study  and  the  most  ancient  science  of  Egypt 
and  Chaldea,  and  indeed  of  the  whole  nomadic  world.  With 
the  names,  places,  motions  and  apparent  numbers  of  the  stars, 
they  must  have  been  almost  as  familiar  as  with  the  sheep  of 
their  flocks  and  the  servants  of  their  households.  And  yet, 
by  comparing  the  stars  to  the  sands,  they  have  indicated  a 
series,  whose  limit  for  multitude,  neither  the  telescope  nor  the 
calculus  of  our  astronomy  has  yet  been  able  to  reach. 

But  to  conclude  these  illustrations,  is  it  not  wonderful,  infin- 
itely wonderful,  that  ever  since  the  days  of  Abraham,  this  book 
should  have  spoken  of  the  stars,  in  a  language  which,  while  it 
has  been  more  or  less  intelligible  to  all  the  intervening  ages,  is 


360  SCIENCE    AND   THE    SAGES 

most  intelligible  to  this  age  of  astronomers — this  age  whose 
sky-compelling  telescopes,  stretching  away  into  the  depths  of 
immensity,  far  as  an  angel's  flight,  have  made  all  the  nebulae  of 
night  to  swarm  with  new  worlds,  until  we  behold  a  starry  uni- 
verse upon  which,  if  numbers  can  be  written  at  all,  they  are 
numbers  beyond  all  human  computation  ?  In  view  of  such  won- 
drous revelations  of  science  and  the  Bible,  may  we  not  with 
reverence  even  apply  to  this  subject,  the  words  of  an  apostle 
when  speaking  of  the  sufferings  and  glory  of  Christ  ?  That  these 
holy  men  of  old,  searched  what,  or  what  manner  of  time,  the 
spirit  of  Christ  which  was  in  them  did  signify,  when  it  testified 
beforehand  of  these  things,  and  the  glory  that  should  follow. 
In  both  cases,  it  would  seem  they  spoke  by  revelation,  they 
spoke  prophetically  ;  and  they  sought  diligently  to  know, 
without  even  finding  out,  the  full  extent  of  their  own  words. 

Such  then  is  the  Bible  in  its  relation  to  the  sciences,  both 
moral  and  natural.  We  have  seen  how  it  contains  all  the  fun- 
damental facts  and  principles  of  Theological  and  Ethical  sci- 
ence. We  have  seen  how  it  furnishes  the  best  materials  for  all 
Legislative  and  Psychological  science.  We  have  seen,  also, 
how  it  stands  related  to  the  modern  physical  sciences — silent 
as  to  all  their  theories,  adjusting  itself  to  all  their  discoveries, 
recording  their  phenomena  as  they  appear  to  the  senses,  and  in 
certain  pregnant  expressions,  seeming  to  anticipate  many  of 
their  most  sublime  and  wonderful  results.  Such,  and  so  glo- 
rious, is  the  science  of  the  Bible. 

This  characteristic  of  the  Bible,  has  indeed  attracted  the 
notice  of  some  of  our  scientific  writers  of  the  very  highest 
authority,  who  have  given  illustrations  of  it  in  their  pages. 

Lieutenant  Maury,  in  his  popular  work,  ''  The  Physical  Geo 
graphy  of  the  Sea,"  has  the  following  passage — 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  361 

"  The  Bible  frequently  makes  allusion  to  the  laws  of  nature, 
their  operation  and  effects.  But  such  allusions  are  often  so 
wrapped  in  the  folds  of  the  peculiar  and  graceful  drapery  with 
which  its  language  is  occasionally  clothed,  that  the  meaning, 
though  peeping  out  from  its  thin  covering  all  the  while,  yet  lies 
in  some  sense,  concealed,  until  the  lights  and  revelations  of 
Bcience  are  thrown  upon  it ;  then  it  bursts  out  and  strikes  us 
with  the  more  force  and  beauty.  As  our  knowledge  of  nature 
and  her  laws  is  increased,  has  our  understanding  of  many  pas- 
sages in  the  Bible  been  improved.  The  Bible  called  the  earth 
'  the  round  world  ;'  yet  for  ages  it  was  the  most  damnable 
heresy,  for  Christian  men  to  say  the  world  is  round  :  and  finally 
sailors  circumnavigated  the  globe,  proved  the  Bible  to  be  right, 
and  saved  Christian  men  of  science  from  the  stake.  *  Can'st 
thou  bind  the  sweet  influences  of  Pleiades  V  Astronomers  of  the 
present  day,  if  they  have  not  answered  this  question,  have 
thrown  so  much  light  upon  it  as  to  show,  that  if  ever  it  be 
answered  by  man,  he  must  consult  the  science  of  astronomy. 
It  has  been  recently  all  but  proved,  that  the  earth  and  the  sun, 
with  their  splendid  retinue  of  comets,  satellites  and  planets,  are 
all  in  motion  around  some  point  or  centre  of  attraction  incon- 
ceivably remote,  and  that  that  point  is  in  the  direction  of  the 
star  Alcyon,  one  of  the  Pleiades.  Who  but  the  astronomer 
then  could  tell  their  sweet  influences  ?  And  as  for  the  general 
system  of  atmospherical  circulation  which  I  have  been  so  long 
endeavoring  to  describe,  the  Bible  tells  it  all  in  a  single  sen- 
tence, '  The  wind  goeth  toward  the  south  and  turneth  about 
uuto  the  north,  it  whirleth  about  continually,  and  the  wind 
returneth  again  according  to  his  circuits  !'  " 

To  this  we  may  also  add  the  high  authority  of  Professor 
Dana,  in  his  admirable  article  on  " Science  and  the  Bible"  in  a 

16 


362  SCIENCE   AND   THE    SAGES 

recent  number  of  the  Bibliotheca  Sacra.  Speaking  of  the 
Mosaic  account  of  the  creation,  he  says,  "  The  first  thought 
that  strikes  the  scientific  reader  is  the  evidence  of  Divinity,  not 
merely  in  the  first  verse  of  the  record,  and  the  successive  fiats, 
but  in  the  whole  order  of  creation.  There  is  so  much  that  the 
most  recent  readings  of  science  have  for  the  first  time  explained, 
that  the  idea  of  man  as  the  author  becomes  utterly  incompre- 
hensible. By  proving  the  record  true,  science  pronounces  it 
divine  ;  for  who  could  have  correctly  narrated  the  secrets  of 
eternity  but  God  himself." 

Amongst  other  illustrations  showing  how  an  infinite  mind 
must  have  guided  the  pen  of  the  sacred  writer,  he  remarks, 
"  Man  again  would  never  have  separated  the  creation  of  light 
so  far  from  that  of  the  sun,  to  us  the  source  of  light ;  neither 
would  he  have  conceived  of  the  creation  of  the  firmament,  as 
that  word  is  usually  understood,  and  was  understood  by  the 
Jews,  without  the  stars  as  a  part  of  its  decoration.  Moreover 
there  is  a  sublimity  and  system  in  the  arrangement,  and  a  far- 
reaching  prophecy,  to  which  philosophy  could  not  have  attained, 
however  instructed." 

Hugh  Miller  and  others  have  spoken  of  the  "  Geologic  Pro- 
phecies," referring  to  those  typical  forms  which,  in  an  ever 
ascending  scale,  ran  through  all  the  creations  of  animal  life  prior 
to  man's  existence,  and,  as  "  shadows  of  better  things  to  come," 
heralded  and  prepared  the  way  before  him.  The  thought  is  a 
grand  one.  But  it  is  manifest,  that  these  Geological  Prophecies 
have  waited  long  for  an  interpreter.  However  true,  or  intelli- 
gibly written  upon  the  rocks,  they  have,  in  fact,  been  hidden 
from  man  through  all  past  ages,  and  as  it  were,  laid  by  for  the 
special  reading  and  exposition  of  the  science  of  these  latter 
days.     Precisely  so  has  it  been,  with  these  other  Prophecies— 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  363 

* 

these  latent  scientific  prophecies  or  anticipations  of  the  word 
of  God,  of  which  wo  have  been  speaking,  which  seem  to  have 
been  so  deeply  imbedded  in  the  sacred  text,  that  the  world  has 
not  seen  them  hitherto,  nor  indeed  could  see  them  now,  were  it 
not  that  our  advancing  science  is  revealing  them.  The  Geo- 
logic Prophecies,  though  they  might  have  been  read,  could  not 
be  understood  till  the  fullness  of  the  time  had  come.  And  it  is 
only  as  the  fullness  of  the  time  comes,  in  the  brighter  light  of 
increasing  scientific  knowledge,  that  these  grand  old  oracles  of 
the  Bible,  so  apparently  simple  but  so  marvellously  pregnant 
with  meaning,  stand  forth  at  once  cleared  of  all  erroneous 
human  glosses,  and  vindicated  as  the  inspired  testimonies  of 
Jehovah.  For  long  ages  interpreted  wrong,  for  other  ages 
perhaps  not  interpreted  at  all,  they  come  at  last  to  the  fullness 
of  time,  and  find  a  true  interpreter  in  a  true  science,  and  are  at 
once  known  and  read  of  all  men,  the  more  sublime  and  beauti- 
ful because  they  have  been  so  long  unrevealed. 


VII. THE    SAGES    OF   THE    BIBLE. 

But  who,  you  may  be  ready  to  ask,  are  the  sages  of  the 
Bible  ?  We  answer,  all  its  writers  ;  the  forty  authors  of  its 
sixty-six  different  books  are  its  sages,  its  wise  men,  its  philoso- 
phers, although  they  have  not  boasted  of  the  title.  There  is  no 
one  of  them  who  is  not  more  worthy  of  the  name  of  sage,  than 
any  of  the  wise  men  of  Greece,  or  the  philosophers  of  Rome. 
To  have  WTitten  and  published  in  Greece  or  Rome,  any  one  of 
these  sixty-six  treatises  which  make  up  the  Bible,  would  have 
immortalized  Solon  or  Lycurgus,  Aristotle  or  Plato,  Socrates  or 
Xenophon,  Seneca  or  Cicero,  Tacitus  or  Pliny.     And  if  the 


364^  SCIENCE    AND    THE    SAGES 

authorship  of  a  single  one  of  the  larger  books  could  now  bo 
traced  to  the  greatest  of  the  classical  writers,  it  is  but  little 
to  say  that  it  would  more  than  double  his  present  fame  as  a 
sage  and  philosopher. 

There  is,  however,  a  distinction  here,  among  the  sacred  wri- 
ters. Moses  is  the  great  sage  of  jurisprudence  and  legislative 
science,  standing^  in  that  department  without  a  rival,  at  the  head 
of  the  list.  But  Paul  is  just  as  great  in  another  department  ; 
standing  as  the  unrivalled  master  of  all  theological  learning.  In 
ethics,  Solomon  stands  confessedly  at  the  head,  as  the  great  moral 
preacher  and  sage  of  the  Old  Testament  :  whilst  in  all  that  re- 
lates to  the  science  of  the  soul,  including  its  ethics,  the  sayings  of 
Christ  in  the  New  Testament,  reported  by  his  followers,  like 
those  of  Socrates,  have  given  us  more  light  than  all  the  oracles 
of  all  the  world  besides.  Tliese  four,  Moses,  Paul,  Solomon 
and  Jesus,  stand  respectively  as  the  representatives  of  those 
four  great  branches  of  moral  science,  jurisprudence,  theology, 
ethics  and  psychology,  on  which  the  Bible  has  spoken  out  with 
the  authoritative  voice  of  a  teacher  come  from  God.  And  what 
Milton  has  ascribed  to  them  in  one  of  these  departments,  is 
true  of  them  and  of  their  fellow  teachers,  in  all  the  rest. 

"  As  men  divinely  taught,  and  better  teaching 
The  solid  rules  of  civil  government. 
In  their  majestic,  unaffected  style, 
Than  all  the  oratory  of  Greece  and  Rome. 
In  them  is  plainest  taught,  and  easiest  learnt, 
What  makes  a  nation  happy  and  keeps  it  so." 

In  physical  science,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  the  Bible  does 
not  profess  to  teach,  although  it  has  recorded  facts  and  descrip- 
tions of  universal  nature,  true  to  life,  the  palm  of  wisdom  is 


OF   THE    BIBLE.  365 

divided  between  Job,  David  and  Solomon.  Each  was  a  keen 
observer  of  nature.  Each  had  an  eye  to  admire  and  a  heart  to 
feel  its  grandeur  and  beauty.  Each  seems  to  have  held  daily 
and  nightly  communion  with  it.  And  each  has  given  us  admir- 
able descriptions,  drawn  from  the  scenery  of  the  earth  and  hea- 
vens. 

For  instance,  did  you  ever  read  attentively  the  hundred  and 
fourth  Psalm,  where  the  writer  winds  up  a  description  of  univer- 
sal nature,  animate  and  inanimate,  with  the  exclamation  :  "  0 
Lord,  how  manifold  are  thy  works  !  in  wisdom  hast  thou  made 
them  all  I"  Even  Humboldt,  one  of  the  least  evangelical  of  all 
the  great  names  of  modern  science,  could  not  fail  to  admire  it. 
Pronouncing  it  a  picture  of  the  entire  Cosmos,  he  says  :  ''  We 
are  astonished  to  find,  in  a  lyrical  poem  of  such  a  limited  com- 
pass, the  whole  universe — the  heavens  and  the  earth — sketched 
with  a  few  bold  touches." 

Did  you  ever  read  attentively  the  twenty-eighth  chapter  of 
Job,  where,  to  everything  in  the  earth,  and  under  the  earth, 
and  above  the  earth,  he  puts  that  sublime  question,  which  can 
find  no  response  in  the  universe  except  in  God  :  "Whence  Com- 
eth wisdom,  and  where  is  the  place  of  understanding  ?"  Read 
it  again  and  say,  if  any  recorded  saying  of  Socrates  or  any  of 
the  Grecian  sages,  is  half  so  memorable  or  half  so  graphic,  as 
the  closing  answer  of  the  Almighty  :  "  Behold  I  the  fear  of  the 
Lord,  that  is  wisdom  ;  and  to  depart  from  evil  is  understand- 
ing." 

As  for  Solomon,  he  has  a  double  title  to  the  name  of  sage. 
He  was  at  once  the  great  moral  philosopher  and  the  great  natu- 
ralist of  bis  times.  Hear  what  the  sacred  historian  says  of  him. 
*'  And  God  gave  Solomon  wisdom  and  understanding  exceeding 
much,  and  largeness  of  heart,  even  as  the  sand  that  is  on  the 


366  SCIENCE   AND   THE    SAGES 

sea-sliore.  And  Solomon's  wisdom  excelled  the  wisdom  of  all 
the  children  of  the  east  country,  and  all  the  wisdom  of  Egypt, 
For  he  was  wiser  than  all  men  :  and  his  fame  was  in  all  nations 
round  about.  And  he  spake  three  thousand  proverbs  ;  and  his 
songs  were  a  thousand  and  five.  And  he  spake  of  trees,  from  the 
cedar  tree  that  is  in  Lebanon,  even  unto  the  hysop  that  spring- 
eth  out  of  the  wall :  he  spake  also  of  beasts,  and  of  fowl,  and 
of  creeping  things,  and  of  fishes."  Or,  as  the  same  things  would 
be  expressed  in  the  language  of  our  times,  he  was  a  botanist, 
zoologist,  ornithologist,  herpetologist,  and  ichthyologist.  He 
was,  however,  as  truly  a  naturalist,  and  a  sage  of  learning  and 
wisdom,  as  he  would  have  been  with  these  high-sounding  titles 
to  his  name  ;  and  we  must  not  allow  the  simple  language  of  the 
Bible  to  detract  from  our  estimate  of  the  real  greatness  of  its 
characters. 

Enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  tlxc  writers  of  the  Bible 
deserve  the  title  of  sage  :  enough  also  to  show  what  sort  of 
science  is  in  the  Bible,  and  what  is  not  there.  Be  it  much,  or 
be  it  little,  there  is  something  else  there — something  nobler, 
something  holier  than  any  human  science,  which  has  made  it 
the  most  attractive  of  all  books,  to  the  most  scientific  minds. 
There  is  something  in  it  which  at  once  separates  and  distinguishes 
it  from  every  other  book.  For,  as  beautifully  remarked  by  Dr. 
Hamilton,  "  the  Bible,  like  Tabor,  is  a  '  mountain  apart  ;' 
isolated,  unique,  peculiar  ;  and  the  farther  up  you  get — the 
more  acquainted  you  become  with  human  books,  and  the  more, 
alongside  of  them,  you  study  the  book  of  God — the  more 
amazed  will  you  be  at  its  outstanding  elevation,  its  world-topping 
preeminence." 

The  greatest  names  that  modern  science  can  boast,  from 
Bacon  and  Locke,  Leibnitz  and  Newton,  Pascal  and  Linnaeus, 


OF   THE    BIBLE. 


367 


to  Davy  and  Herschel,  Cuvier,  Brewster  and  Miller,  have  yield- 
ed their  profoundest  homage  to  the  Bible.  It  has  been  recent- 
ly stated,  on  good  authority,  that  amongst  all  the  scientific  men 
of  our  country  now  living,  there  is  scarcely  one  of  the  first  rank 
who  could  be  set  down  as  an  atheist  or  infidel.  And  on  the 
other  side  of  the  water,  however  it  may  be  with  the  science  of 
Continental  Europe,  we  think  it  will  be  found,  that  all  the 
greatest  living  lights  of  the  British  Isles  may  be  fairly  ranged 
on  the  side  of  Christianity  and  the  Bible. 

As  for  the  future,  although  it  is  the  destiny  of  science  to 
make  endless  progress,  while  the  Bible,  as  containing  a  com- 
pleted revelation,  must  ever  stand  by  its  ancient  landmarks,  we 
have  no  fear,  that  science  and  the  Bible  will  ever  clash.  Our 
confidence  in  their  ultimate  and  eternal  harmony  is  grounded 
on  the  conviction,  that  they  are  ordained  of  God,  each  in  its 
proper  sphere,  to  be  a  revelation  of  his  will  to  man.  The  ex- 
pounder of  science  and  the  expounder  of  the  Bible  ought  to  feel 
that  they  are  brothers  and  co-workers.  The  one  ought  to  feel, 
that  he  has  as  much  at  stake,  in  making  his  established  facts 
harmonize  with  the  book  of  God,  as  the  other  has,  in  so  inter- 
preting that  book  as  to  reconcile  it  with  the  progress  of  science. 
And  whenever  there  is  an  apparent  discrepancy,  as  there  has 
often  been,  the  presumption  on  both  sides  ought  to  be,  for  it  is 
a  presumption  justified  by  all  past  experience,  not  that  there  is 
a  conflict  of  facts,  but  a  conflict  of  interpretations  and  opinions. 

We  have  no  sympathy  with  those  on  the  one  side,  any  more 
than  with  those  on  the  other,  who  are  accustomed  to  represent 
the  two  great  record  books  of  God  as  being  in  conflict,  or  likely 
to  become  so,  in  their  established  facts.  There  are  two  Testa- 
ments in  the  Bible — an  earlier  and  a  later  one — and  we  are  very 
sure  that  they  speak  the  truth — the  same  harmonious  truth,  to 


368  SCIENCE   AND   THE    SAGES 

all  who  will  read  and  interpret  them  aright.  And  if  God  has 
also  graven  another  still  earlier  testimony  in  the  rocks,  we  are 
very  sure  that  this  also  will  speak  the  truth  to  all  who  read 
and  interpret  it  aright.  But  as  fallible  man  may  give,  and 
often  has  given,  a  wrong  interpretation  both  to  the  written  and 
the  rocky  records,  it  is  the  great  work  and  duty  of  all  the 
friends  of  truth  on  every  side,  to  compare  these  records  faith- 
fully, to  read  them  in  the  light  of  each  other,  and  to  interpret 
and  expound  the  one  by  the  other,  even  as  we  do  the  Old  Testa- 
ment by  the  New,  and  vice  versa. 

The  great  Bacon,  father  of  our  inductive  philosophy,  was 
willing  to  read  and  to  recognize  both  books — the  book  of  reve- 
lation and  the  book  of  nature,  as  the  two  grand  Scriptures  of 
God.  But  the  great  Bacon,  in  his  day,  had  access  to  only  one 
Testament  of  the  book  of  nature — the  New  Testament  so  to 
speak  of  the  living  world  around  him.  It  has  been  reserved  to 
modern  geology  to  bring  to  light  an  older  dispensation — to  un- 
fold from  the  rocks  and  read  to  us  what  may  be  called  the  Old 
Testament  of  the  book  of  nature,  "ut  tanquam  altera  Scrip- 
tura." 

Let  us  then  receive  the  records  of  God  wherever  he  has 
written  them,  not  fearing  that  the  great  Author  of  nature  and 
of  the  Bible  has  contradicted  himself,  or  that  one  of  his  books 
can  suffer  damage  from  the  reading  of  the  other.  "The  two 
records,"  remarks  Professor  Dana,  "  the  earlier  revelation  and 
the  later,  are  one  in  their  sublime  enunciations  of  the  history  of 
creation.  There  is  a  like  grandeur  in  the  progress  of  the  ages. 
They  both  contain  conceptions  infinitely  beyond  the  reach  of 
the  human  intellect,  and  bear  equal  evidence  of  their  divine 
origin.  *  The  grand  old  book  of  God  still  stands,'  and  this 
old  earth,  the  more  its  leaves  are  turned  over  and  pondered; 


OF   THE   BIBLE.  SG9 

the  more  will  it  sustain,  enlighten,  and  illustrate  the  sacred 
word.  The  two  are  independent  inscriptions,  written  in  lines 
of  light  by  the  same  sun  of  righteousness,  and  the  more  deeply 
they  are  studied  and  loved  for  their  truths,  the  higher  may  we 
rise  towards  the  eflfalgence  of  their  eternal  source." 

Such  is  the  noble  testimony  of  science,  as  expounded  by  one 
of  her  most  worthy  representatives  on  this  side  of  the  water. 
And  most  nobly  does  theology  respond  to  the  sentiment,  from 
the  other  side,  by  one  of  the  most  accomplished  of  her  living 
expounders.  "  Science,"  says  Dr.  McCosh,  "  has  a  foundation, 
and  so  has  religion  ;  let  them  unite  their  foundations,  and  the 
basis  will  be  broader,  and  there  will  be  tvyo  compartments  of 
one  great  fabric  reared  to  the  glory  of  God.  Let  the  one  be 
the  outer,  and  the  other  the  inner  court.  In  the  one  let  all 
look,  and  admire,  and  adore  ;  and  in  the  other  let  those  who 
have  faith  kneel,  and  pray,  and  praise.  Let  the  one  be  the 
Sanctuary,  where  human  learning  may  present  its  richest  in- 
cense as  an  offering  to  God,  and  the  other,  the  Holiest  of  all, 
separated  from  it  by  a  veil  now  rent  in  twain,  and  in  which  on 
a  blood-sprinkled  mercy-seat,  we  pour  out  the  love  of  a  recon- 
ciled heart,  and  hear  the  oracles  of  the  living  God." 

And  what  need  we  say  more  ?  The  great  Newton,  after 
expounding  the  laws  of  the  material  universe,  closed  the  labors 
of  his  life  in  expounding  the  chronology  of  the  book  of  God. 
And  how  many  in  every  age — -the  masters  of  art  and  eloquence, 
the  laurel-crowned  princes  of  science  and  literature — have  come, 
like  him,  to  this  book,  that  they  might  learn  their  last  lessons 
of  celestial  wisdom  at  the  feet  of  Jesus  !  "  Newton,"  says 
GilfiUan,  "  laid  not  his  dying  head  on  his  Principia,  but  on  his 
Bible  ;  Cowper,  not  on  his  Task,  but  on  his  Testament  :  Hall, 
not  on  his  wide  fame,  but  on  his  humble  hope  ;  Michael  AngelO; 

16* 


370  SCIENCE    AND   THE    SAGES 

not  on  that  pencil  which  alone  coped  with  the  Judgment,  but 
on  that  grace  which  for  him,  shore  the  Judgment  of  its  terrors  : 
Coleridge,  not  on  his  limitless  genius,  but  on  the  mercy  of  God. 
Often  must  the  wanderer,  amid  American  forests,  lay  his  head 
upon  a  rude  log,  while  above  it  is  the  abyss  of  the  stars.  Thus 
the  weary,  heavy-laden,  dying  Christian  leans  upon  the  rugged 
and  narrow  cross,  but  looks  up,  the  while,  to  the  beaming  cauo 
py  of  immortal  life — to  those  things  which  are  above."  So 
may  we  at  last,  cling  to  the  Bible  and  lean  upon  Christ  and 
his  cross,  as  our  sublimest  science. 

For  in  whatever  light  we  survey  the  subject,  whether  of  his- 
tory, philosophy,  or  experience,  we  feel  all  the  force  of  the 
conclusion,  brought  out  with  such  power  by  the  author  of  that 
great  work,  "  The  Knowledge  of  God," — a  work  which  is  itself 
a  demonstration  of  the  true  science  of  the  Bible,  and  an  imper- 
ishable monument  to  the  genius  and  learning  of  our  country — 
"  If  these  Scriptures  are  not  the  product  of  a  superhuman 
intelligence,  it  requires  a  superhuman  intelligence  to  determine 
what  they  are  the  product  of." 

Should  all  the  forms  that  men  devise 
Assault  my  faith  with  treacherous  art, 
I'll  call  them  vanity  and  lies 
And  bind  the  Bible  to  my  heart. 


OF   THE    BIBLE.  371 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

ORIGIML  CONCEPTIONS;  OR,  OBJECTS  OF  SUBLLMITY 
AND  BEAUTY,  IN  THE  BIBLE. 

The  Divine  Existence — The  Providence  of  God — The  Personal  Character  of  Christ— 
The  Idea  of  Special  Divine  Influence — The  Church  of  God— The  Common  Brother- 
hood of  Man — The  Day  of  Sacred  Rest — The  Millennium — The  Kesurection  of  th« 
Dead— The  Last  Judgment— The  Heavenly  World— The  Scheme  of  Redemption- 
Recapitulation  and  Conclusion. 

In  order  to  form  a  proper  estimate  of  the  Bible  as  a  book  of 
taste  aud  genius,  we  have  been  led  to  survey  its  literary  and 
scientific  characteristics — its  wide  range  of  history  and  its  sin- 
gularly diversified  biographical  characters.  The  subject  is  not 
yet  exhausted.  There  is  one  distinct  and  important  field  which 
has  not  yet  fallen  under  our  review.  There  is  one  train  of 
thought  which,  through  all  these  illustrations,  has  been  con- 
stantly presenting  itself  to  the  mind's  eye  from  a  distance, 
which  deserves  now  to  be  brought  more  fully  into  view.  It  is 
so  rich  in  the  choicest  fruits  of  literature,  so  adorned  with  all 
that  goes  to  make  up  a  landscape  of  surpassing  glory,  that  it 
may  be  taken  as  the  subject  of  a  separate  investigation.  It  is 
a  survey  of  the  great  orginal  conceptions  of  the  Bible,  regard- 
ed simply  as  objects  of  intellectual  beauty  and  of  moral 
grandeur,  which  we  here  propose. 

Our  purpose  is  to  single  out  from  the  mass  of  facts  and  doe- 


372  ORIGINAL    CONCEPTIONS  ;    OR, 

trines  revealed  in  the  Bible,  certain  leading  ideas,  which  every 
where  pervade  the  book  as  its  own  peculiar  and  original  dis- 
coveries ;  and  to  look  at  these  ideas,  not  now  as  matters  of  fact, 
viewed  from  the  stand-point  of  theological  truth  and  duty, 
but  simply  as  matters  of  thought  viewed  from  the  stand-point  of 
intellectual  and  moral  beauty — that  beauty  indeed  which  even 
if  they  were  false,  would  still  belong  to  them,  as  the  most  won- 
derful and  original  conceptions  of  the  human  mind. 

To  every  thoughtful  reader  of  the  Bible  it  is  apparent,  that 
there  are  certain  great  fundamental  principles,  or  doctrines  of  a 
general  character,  which  belong  so  exclusively  to  the  book,  that 
they  may  be  called  its  special  property,  its  original  sterling 
stock  of  thought.  Though  now  incorporated  as  part  and  par- 
cel of  the  learning  of  the  whole  civilized  world,  to  such  an 
extent  that  the  world  often  forgets  from  what  quarter  they  came, 
still  these  conceptions  are  all  to  be  traced  to  the  Bible  as  their 
native  home.  For  it  will  be  found,  that  where  the  Bible  has 
borrowed  one  great  thought  from  the  literature  of  the  ancient 
world,  it  has  loaned  a  thousand  to  that  of  the  modern.  Old 
and  familiar  as  they  are  to  us,  they  were  new  when  the  Bible 
struck  them  out. 

Now,  many  of  these  great  leading  ideas  which  distinguish  the 
Bible  from  all  other  books,  are,  at  the  same  time,  so  marked 
with  the  elements  of  the  sublime  and  beautiful,  that  they  can- 
not fail  to  constitute  a  very  high  attraction  to  those  who  are 
capable  of  appreciating  such  things.  Hence,  among  the  mani- 
fold attractions  of  the  book  of  God,  we  would  assign  a  place — 
and  no  inferior  place — to  its  grand  conceptions  or  in  other  words 
its  objects  of  intellectual  and  moral  beauty.  It  is  our  present 
purpose  to  present,  in  connection,  some  of  these  peculiar  revela- 
tions of  the  Scriptures.     For  we  think,  that  aside  from  their 


OBJECTS    OF   SUBLIMITY    AND   BEAUTY   IN   THE   BIBLE.    373 

higher  claims  as  Divine  eternal  truths,  there  are  to  be  found 
here,  even  on  the  lower  ground  of  classical  beauty,  revelations 
of  glory,  and  scenes  of  loveliness,  and  heights  of  grandeur,  and 
flashes  of  immortal  light,  far  exceeding  all  other  discoveries  and 
conceptions  of  human  genius.  So  that,  if  a  man  love  to  dwell 
in  the  regions  of  lofty  thought,  to  soar  into  the  third  heaven  of 
imagination,  to  rise  from  the  seen  and  temporal  to  the  unseen 
and  eternal,  if  he  have  a  soul,  whose  high  conceptions  may  be 
kindled  and  dilated  by  the  contemplation  of  all  that  is  most 
beautiful  in  nature,  most  sublime  in  science,  most  noble  in  action, 
most  Godlike  in  holiness  and  virtue — this  is  the  book  for  him, 
the  book  that  first  opens  a  new  world  of  wonder  within  us, 
and  then  opens  to  us  a  clear  vision  into  the  future  and  eternal 
world. 

There  is  a  voice  here  which  seems  to  call  from  heaven,  like 
the  angel  of  the  Apocalypse,  saying  "  Come  up  hither,  and  I 
will  show  thee  things  to  come."  There  were  good  things  to  be 
found  in  Nazareth,  notwithstanding  the  prejudices  of  the  good 
Nathaniel.  But  said  the  Master,  "  Thou  shalt  see  greater 
things  than  these,  when  thou  shalt  see  heaven  open,  and  the 
angels  of  God  ascending  and  descending  upon  the  son  of  man.'' 
The  traveller,  you  know,  who  would  command  a  wide  and  glorious 
horizon,  must  ascend  the  mountain-top  :  if  he  would  enjoy  a 
vision  of  transcendent  loveliness  and  grandeur,  he  must  toil  for 
it,  he  must  climb  the  very  crags  of  the  mountains  ;  and  the 
higher  he  climbs  the  wider  will  be  his  field  of  vision.  Even 
so  is  it  in  that  spiritual  world  which  the  Bible  reveals.  Let  us 
then  endeavor  to  ascend  these  glorious  heights.  Let  us  rise 
from  facts  to  principles,  from  the  concrete  and  particular  to  the 
abstract  and  the  universal,  from  the  liv  ng  historical  characters 
that  everywhere    adorn   the  inspired  pages,  to  those  grand^ 


374  ORIGINAL  conceptions;  or, 

ennobling,  conceptions  of  eternal  truth,  which  made  the  men^ 
women,  and  children  of  the  Bible  what  they  were  ;  which  con- 
stituted their  manna  from  heaven — that  daily  ambrosial  food  on 
which  their  immortal  spirits  fed  even  while  dwelling  in  the 
tabernacles  of  clay. 

The  world,  it  is  said,  is  governed  by  ideas.  Assuredly  there 
is  nothing  in  the  world  more  important  and  influential  than  a 
great  idea  :  for  its  destiny  is  to  work  itself  out  in  the  great 
facts  and  grand  events  of  history.  A  great  idea,  in  full  pos- 
session of  a  single  mind,  for  instance  the  idea  that  struggled  so 
long  for  birth  in  the  mind  of  Columbus,  is  a  great  gain  to  the 
world.  How  much  more,  when  such  an  idea  takes  posses- 
sion of  the  public  mind  of  a  nation,  a  generation  or  the  race  of 
man  I  Now  if  it  shall  be  shown,  that  the  world  is  indebted  to 
the  Bible  for  more  of  its  grand,  inspiring  ideas — ideas  having 
power  both  to  absorb  its  thought  and  control  its  destiny — than 
to  any  other  source,  who  will  say,  that  the  Bible  does  not  there- 
by fully  vindicate  its  claim  to  supremacy,  not  only  as  man^s 
greatest  classic,  but  as  God's  own  inspired  oracle  ? 


I. — ^THE  DIVINE  EXISTENCE. 

As  the  first  illustration  of  this  moral  sublimity  let  us  take 
tlie  idea  of  God,  as  he  is  made  known  in  the  Bible  ;  that,  is  the 
twofold  idea  of  the  Divine  existence  and  the  Divine  character, 
the  conception  of  a  personal,  reigning,  all-pervading  Deity,  the 
omnipotent,  omniscient,  omnipresent  Jehovah,  creating  and  up- 
holding all  things  by  the  fiat  of  his  will  and  the  word  of  his  power, 
existing  in  himself  from  eternity  to  eternity,  without  beginning 
and  without  end — the  infinitely  wise,  the  infinitely  good,  the  infin- 


OBJECTS   OF   SUBLIMITT   AND   BEAUTY   IN   THE   BIBLE.    376 

itely  holy — "  God  over  all,  blessed  forever."  Although  the  Scrip- 
tures have  themselves  made  the  unanswerable  challenge,  "  Cau'st 
thou  by  searching  find  out  God?  Can'st  thou  find  out  the  Almighty 
into  perfection  ?"  still  no  idea  can  be  more  distinct,  consistent  and 
intelligible,  than  that  which  the  Scriptures  have  everywhere  given 
of  the  Divine  character.  Throughout  the  book  from  beginning  to 
end,  it  is  the  same  sublime  conception  of  the  self  existent,  infini- 
tely perfect  God,  as  announced  by  Paul  on  Mars  Hill,  "  God 
that  made  the  world  and  all  things  therein,  dwelleth  not  in 
temples  made  with  hands,  seeing  he  is  Lord  of  all,"  or  as  pro- 
claimed by  the  prophet,  "  Heaven  is  my  throne  and  the  earth 
my  footstool,"  or  as  affirmed  by  the  Saviour,  "  God  is  a  spirit, 
and  they  that  worship  him,  must  worship  him  in  spirit  and  in 
truth."  In  every  page,  in  every  line,  in  every  manifestation,  it 
is  the  same  august  and  awful  idea,  without  a  likeness  or  a 
counterpart  in  anything  else  on  earth  or  in  heaven,  of  a  pure 
personal  spirit,  as  expressed  in  the  creed  of  the  church,  "infinite, 
eternal,  and  unchangeable  in  his  being,  power,  wisdom,  holi- 
ness, justice,  goodness  and  truth." 

This,  you  will  say,  is  the  one,  clear  idea  of  the  God  of  the 
Bible — the  unsearchable,  the  unapproachable  object  of  the 
homage  and  adoration  of  the  whole  rational  and  moral  universe. 
Now  compare  this  conception  of  God,  with  any  other  idea  of  a 
Deity,  not  derived  from  the  Scriptures,  which  has  ever  ap- 
peared in  the  literature  of  the  world,  ancient  or  modern.  The 
Koran  of  Mohammed  is  out  of  the  question  ;  for  w^hatever  it 
contains,  either  of  truth  or  sublimity,  was  stolen  from  the  Scrip- 
tures. The  North  American  Indians  could  talk  of  a  "  Great 
Spirit  ;"  but  perhaps  with  no  higher  conceptions,  than  of  an 
Indian  of  like  passions  with  themselves,  built  on  a  little  larger 
scale  ;  and  it  may  be,  that  the  name  itself  is  all  that,  remains  to 


376  ORIGINAL   CONCEPTIONS  ;   OR, 

tell  of  those  primeval  revelations  which  their  ancestors  had 
received  from  the  Go'i  of  the  Bible  before  the  dispersion  of  the 
race  at  Babel.  But  compare  the  Scriptural  idea  of  the 
unsearchable  and  ever  blessed  God,  "  the  God  of  glory,"  with 
any  conception  of  a  Deity  to  be  found  in  the  mythology  or 
philosophy  of  the  classical  Greeks  and  Romans,  or  in  the  mon- 
uments of  Chaldean  and  Egyptian  learning,  or  in  the  religious 
books  of  the  modern  Pagan  nations  :  and  you  will  find,  that  the 
difference  between  the  two,  in  point  of  sublimity  alone,  not  to 
say  truth  aud  reason,  is  somewhat  akin  to  that  which  lies 
between  the  world  of  the  ancient  astrologers  and  the  universe 
of  modern  astronomy.  "  The  Bible,"  says  Dr.  Turner,  "repre- 
sents God  as  no  mortal  genius  ever  could,  as  no  human  intel- 
lect, unblest  by  inspiration,  ever  did,  or  can.  Hell  is  naked 
before  him — heaven  is  unfolded — all  things  are  like  nothing, 
all  things  are  nothing,  when  compared  with  him,  the  infinite 
Maker." 

It  is  safe  to  say,  that  the  God  of  the  Bible  is  the  profoundest, 
sublimest,  most  inspiring  objegt  of  thought  which  the  human  in- 
tellect has  ever  essayed  to  grasp.  No  one  thought  has  taken  so 
deep  a  hold  upon  the  human  mind  :  no  one  theme  has  given  it 
so  much  healthful  exercise  :  no  one  idea  has  done  so  much 
to  enlarge  its  calibre,  and  ennoble  its  aspirations.  One  of  the 
greatest  statesmen  of  modern  times,  Mr.  Webster,  when  re- 
quested by  a  friend  to  name  what  he  regarded  as  the  most  irn 
portant  thought  that  had  ever  entered  his  mind,  after  a  solemn 
pause,  replied  :  "  My  accountability  to  God."  And  had  he 
been  asked  for  the  sublimesjt  conception  of  the  mind,  would  he 
not  have  answered,  "  God  himself?" 

We  are  all  so  familiar,  from  our  childhood,  with  the  Scriptural 
idea  of  God,  it  has  become  so  incorporated  with  the  literature 


OBJECTS   OF   SUBLIMITY    AND   BEAUTY   IN    THE   BIBLE.    377 

of  the  civilized  world,  that  we  often  fail  to  appreciate  its  grand' 
eur  as  an  original  conception,  and  its  value  as  the  highest  of  all 
scientific  truths.  But  suppose,  that  while  blest  with  the  know- 
le<:lge  of  all  other  things,  we  could  grow  up  to  full  maturity  of 
intellect  in  utter  ignorance  of  the  Scriptural  idea  of  God — sup- 
pose, that  with  the  mental  vigor  of  Socrates,  the  learning  of 
Cicero,  the  taste  of  Addison,  the  moral  tone  and  enthusiasm  of 
Burke,  we  should  receive,  for  the  first  time  and  all  at  once,  the 
full  conception  of  the  person  and  character  of  Jehovah  as  re- 
vealed in  the  Bible — suppose,  that  thus  endowed  and  prepared, 
we  could  stand  where  Moses  stood,  in  the  clefts  of  Sinai's  rocks, 
whilst  the  visions  of  uncreated  glory  passed  by,  and  a  voice  was 
heard  proclaiming,  "  The  Lord  God,  merciful  and  gracious,  long 
suffering  and  abundant  in  goodness  and  truth. " — suppose  we 
could  stand  where  Isaiah  stood,  see  and  hear  what  Isaiah  saw 
and  heard,  when  the  Lord  sat  upon  his  burning  throne,  and  the 
Seraphim  cried  one  to  another  :  *'  Holy  !  Holy  !  Holy  !  is  the 
Lord  of  hosts  :  the  whole  earth  is  full  of  his  glory  I"  Suppose 
we  could  stand  with  the  seer  of  Patmos,  amid  the  visions  and 
trumpets  and  thunders  of  the  Apocalypse,  and  gaze  in  upon  the 
choirs  of  angels  and  redeemed  ones,  who  cease  not  day  nor 
night  to  cast  their  glittering  crowns  before  the  throne,  and 
cry  :  "  Great  and  marvelous  are  thy  works.  Lord  God  Al- 
mighty ;  just  and  true  are  thy  ways,  thou  King  of  saints  !" — 
how  would  all  the  images  of  earthly  grandeur  dwindle  into  in- 
significance, how  would  all  our  loftiest  conceptions  of  Divinity, 
derived  from  Greek  and  Roman  classics,  sink  into  annihilation, 
before  such  a  vision  and  such  a  manifestation  of  the  one  living 
and  true  God  of  the  Bible,  glorious  in  holiness,  fearful  in 
praises,  doing  wonders,  who  spake  and  it  was  done,  who  com- 
manded and  it  stood  fast,  at  whose  presence  the  perpetual  hills 


378  ORIGINAL   CONCEPTIONS  ;    OR, 

did  bow,  before  whose  glance  the  everlasting  mountains  were 
scattered,  who  said,  **  Let  there  be  light :  and  there  was  light." 

The  Bible  is  not  only  the  revealer  of  the  unknown  God  to 
man,  but  his  grand  interpreter  as  the  God  of  nature.  In  re- 
vealing God,  it  has  given  us  the  key  that  unlocks  the  profound- 
est  mysteries  of  creation — the  clue  by  which  to  thread  the 
labyrinth  of  the  universe — the  glass  through  which  to  look  from 
nature  up  to  nature's  Author.  It  is  only  when  we  stand  and  gaze 
upon  nature  with  the  Bible  in  our  hands  and  its  idea  of  God  in 
our  understandings,  that  nature  is  capable  of  rising  to  her  high- 
est majesty  as  the  oracle  and  mouth-piece  of  God,  of  kindling  in 
our  souls  their  highest  emotions  of  moral  beauty  and  sublimity. 
Without  the  aU  pervading  spiritual  God  of  the  Bible  in  our 
thoughts,  nature's  sweetest  music  would  lose  its  charm — the 
universe  its  highest  significance  and  glory.  It  is  just  when  we 
stand  and  gaze  upon  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  with  God's 
word  as  our  interpreter,  that  the  heavens  and  earth  shine  forth 
with  their  divinest  lustre — all  nature  vocal  with  God,  all  crea- 
tures offering  praise. 

Go  and  stand,  with  your  open  Bible,  upon  the  Areopagus  of 
Athens,  where  Paul  stood  so  long  ago  :  in  thoughtful  silence, 
look  around  upon  the  site  of  all  that  ancient  greatness  :  look 
upward  to  those  still  bright  and  glorious  skies  of  Greece  ;  and 
what  conceptions  of  wisdom  and  power  will  all  those  memorable 
scenes  of  nature  and  art  convey  to  your  mind,  now,  more  than 
they  did  to  an  ancient  worshipper  of  Jupiter  or  Apollo  ?  They 
will  tell  of  Him,  who  made  the  worlds,  "  by  whom,  and  through 
whom,  and  for  whom,  are  all  things."  To  you  that  landscape 
of  exceeding  beauty,  so  rich  in  the  monuments  of  departed  gen- 
ius, with  its  distant  classic  mountains,  its  deep  blue  sea,  and  its 
bright  bending   skies,   will  be   telling   a  tale   of  glory,    the 


OBJECTS    OF   SUBLIMITY    AND    BEAUTY   IN   THE   BIBLE.    379 

Grecian  never  learned  ;  for  it  will  speak  to  you,  no  more  of  its 
thirty  thousand  petty  contending  deities,  but  of  the  one  living 
and  everlasting  God. 

Go  and  stand  with  David  and  Isaiah  under  the  star-spangled 
canopy  of  the  night,  and,  as  you  look  away  to  the  "  range  of 
planetti,  suns,  and  adamantine  spheres,  wheeling  unshaken 
through  ^he  void  immense,"  take  up  the  mighty  questionings  of 
inspiration  :  "  Who  bath  measured  the  waters  in  the  holloa  of 
his  hand,  iind  meted  out  heaven  with  the  span,  and  compre- 
hended the  dust  of  the  earth  in  a  measure,  and  weighed  the 
mountains  in  boales  and  the  hills  in  a  balance  ?  It  is  He  that 
sitteth  upon  the  circle  of  the  earth,  and  the  inhabitants  thereof 
are  as  grasshoppeifs  ;  that  stretcheth  out  the  heavens  as  a  cur- 
tain, and  spreadeth  them  out  as  a  tent  to  dwell  in."  "  Of  old 
hast  thou  laid  the  foundation  of  the  earth  ;  and  the  heavens  are 
the  work  of  thy  hands.  They  shall  perish,  but  thou  shalt  en- 
dure :  yea,  all  of  them  shall  wax  old  like  a  garment  ;  as  a  ves- 
ture shalt  thou  change  them,  and  they  shall  be  changed  :  But 
thou  art  the  same,  and  thy  years  shall  have  no  end." 

Go  and  stand  upon  the  heights  at  Niagara  :  look  upon  that 
"  matchless  robe  of  terror  and  of  beauty,"  rolling  on  forever, 
and  as  it  rolls,  "  notching  the  centuries  "  in  the  everlasting 
rocks  :  listen,  in  awe-struck  silence,  to  that  boldest,  most  earn- 
est and  eloquent  of  all  nature's  orators.  And  what  is  Niagara 
with  its  plimging  waters  and  its  mighty  roar  ?  It  is  but  the 
oracle  of  God.  It  is  but  the  whisper  of  his  voice,  who  is  re- 
vealed in  the  Bible,  as  sitting  above  the  water-floods  forever. 
"  The  voice  of  the  Lord  is  upon  the  waters  :  the  God  of  glory 
thundereth  :  the  Lord  is  upon  many  waters :  the  voice  of  the 
Lord  is  full  of  majesty." 

Go  with  your  Bible  and  stand  upon  the  crumbling  verge  of 


380  ORIGINAL  conceptions;  ok, 

the  volcano.  Look  down  into  its  awful  crater  as  into  the  open 
ing  mouth  of  hell ;  gaze  upon  its  fierce,  surging  billows  of 
liquid  fire  ;  hear  its  deep  muttering  thunders,  ominous  of  the 
coming  explosion  ;  behold  its  red  artillery  plunging  and  plough- 
ing down  the  mountain  sides,  its  dense  volume  of  smoke  and 
cinders,  rising  up  as  if  to  extinguish  the  sun  !  And  of  whom 
do  JEtna  and  Vesuvius  speak  ?  What  are  they  but  the  symbols 
of  His  presence,  and  the  heralds  of  His  wrath,  who  is  yet  to 
arise  in  his  majesty,  "  whose  voice  shook  the  earth,  and  shall 
once  more  shake  not  only  earth,  but  also  heaven  ?"  What  are 
they  but  premonitors  of  that  day  wherein  "  the  heavens  being 
on  fire  shall  be  dissolved,  and  the  elements  shall  melt  with  fervent 
heat,  the  earth  also,  and  all  the  works  that  are  therein  shall  be 
burned  up." 

Go  once  more  and  stand  with  Coleridge,  at  sunrise,  in  the 
Alpine  valley  of  Chamouny  ;  join  with  him  in  that  magnificent 
invocation  to  the  hoary  mount,  "  sole  sovereign  of  the  vale,"  to 
rise  with  all  its  streams,  and  groves,  and  cataracts,  and  ice- 
fields— 

"  And  tell  the  silent  sky, 
And  tell  the  stars,  and  tell  yon  rising  sun, 
Earth,  with  her  thousand  voices,  praises  God." 
"  God !  let  the  torrents,  like  a  shout  of  nations 
Answer !  and  let  the  ice-plains  echo,  God  ! 
God!  sing  ye  meadow-streams  with  gladsome  voice  I 
Ye  pine-groves,  with  your  soft  and  soul-like  sounds! 
And  they,  too,  have  a  voice,  yon  piles  of  snow, 
And  in  their  perilous  fall  shall  thunder  God  !" 

Who  can  stand  amid  scenes  like  these,  with  the  Bible  in  big 
hands,  and  not  feel,  that  if  there  is  moral  sublimity  to  be  found 
on  earth,  it  is  in  the  book  of  God,  it  is  in  the  thought  of  God  ? 


OBJECTS   OF   SUBLIMITY    AND   BEAUTY    IN   THE    BIBLE.    381 

For  what  are  all  these  outward  visible  forms  of  grandeur,  but 
the  expression  and  the  utterance  of  that  conception  of  Deity 
which  the  Bible  has  created  in  our  minds,  and  which  has  now 
become  the  leading  and  the  largest  thought  of  all  civilized 
nations  ?  And  what  would  these  types  and  symbols  be  without 
the  Bible  as  God's  interpreter  ? 


II. THE    PROVIDENCE    OF   GOD. 

As  the  second  illustration  of  intellectual  and  moral  grandeur 
in  the  Bible,  let  us  take  the  doctrine  of  Divine  Providence, 
including  as  it  does,  the  idea  of  God's  natural  and  moral  govern- 
ment over  the  world.  We  might  have  taken  his  work  of  crea- 
tion— the  calling  into  being  out  of  nothing  of  all  worlds  and 
creatures.  This  is  a  sublime  exhibition  of  power,  and  a  strik- 
ing illustration  of  the  superiority  of  the  Scriptures  over  all  other 
books  ;  for,  it  is  manifest,  that  no  other  account  of  the  origin 
of  all  things,  not  even  the  "  development  hypothesis,"  is  half  so 
sublime,  half  so  philosophical,  as  the  Mosaic  account.  But 
it  is  more  to  our  present  purpose,  to  take  the  Scriptural  idea  of 
Divine  Providence,  as  one  of  those  great  objects  of  thought,  or 
fundamental  facts  of  revelation,  whose  contemplation  is  fitted 
to  inspire  our  minds  with  sentiments  of  the  highest  sublimity 
and  beauty.  A  God  existing  from  all  eternity  is  a  sublime  con- 
ception. A  God  creating  all  things  out  of  nothing  is  sublime 
and  glorious.  But  it  is  a  God  providing  and  governing  all 
things  in  infinite  wisdom  and  goodness,  after  the  counsel  of  his 
own  will,  and  for  the  furtherance  of  his  own  glory  and  his  chil- 
dren's well-being,  that  we  are  to  contemplate,  in  the  Scripture  doc- 
trine of  eternal  providence.    It  is  a  God,  not  afar  off,  reposing  in 


382  OEIGINAL    CONCEPTIONS  ;    OR, 

the  distant  places  of  the  universe,  but  ever  present  with  the  least  ag 
with  the  greatest  of  his  creatures  ;  foreseeing  the  end  from  the 
beginning,  everywhere  educing  good  out  of  evil ;  and  whilst  carry- 
ing forward  the  vast  machinery  of  countless  worlds  of  animate  and 
inanimate  beings,  numbering  the  very  hairs  of  our  heads  ;  not  suf- 
fering a  sparrow  to  fall  to  the  ground  except  in  fulfillment  of  his 
everlasting  decrees  ;  a  God  whose  energetic  will  gives  force  to  all 
the  laws  of  physical  nature  ;  whose  all-inspecting  government 
extends  to  every  inhabitant  of  the  material  and  moral  uni- 
verse. 

"  Who  sees  with  equal  eye  as  God  of  all 
A  hero  perish  and  a  sparrow  fall : 
Atoms  and  systems  into  ruin  hurled, 
And  now  a  bubble  burst,  and  now  a  world." 

This  sublime  idea  of  infinite  Intelligence  and  Power,  filling 
the  throne  of  the  universe,  governing  and  guiding  all  its  vastest 
and  minutest  movements — the  Deity  in  activity — is  the  concep- 
tion of  Divine  Providence,  which  is  everywhere  unfolded  to  our 
view  in  the  Scriptures.  "  Thou  God  seest  me  " — "  The  Lord 
will  provide  " — "  The  heavens  do  rule  " — "  The  Lord  reigncth  " 
— "  The  Most  High  ruleth  in  the  kingdom  of  men" — this  is  the 
variously  expressed,  but  constant  thought  of  the  sacred  writers. 
The  great  truth  is  well  expressed  in  the  decree  of  the  king  of 
Babylon  :  "  His  kingdom  is  an  everlasting  kingdom,  and  his 
dominion  endureth  from  generation  to  generation  :  all  his  works 
are  truth  and  all  his  ways  judgment,  and  those  that  walk  in 
pride  he  is  able  to  abase."  But  we  need  not  multiply  quota- 
tions. You  know  how  full  the  Bible  is  of  this  doctrine.  Every 
page  of  the  sacred  oracles  either  afiirms  or  exemplifies  it : 
and  every  chapter  of  human  history  confirms  it.  The  Lord  sit- 
teth  in  the  heavens  as   governor   among  the  nations.     "Tha 


OBJECTS   OF   SUBLIMITY   AND   BEAUTY   IN  THE   BIBLE.    383 

heart  of  man  deviseth  his  way,  but  the  Lord  directeth  his 
steps. 

Now  without  stopping  further  to  elucidate  this  great  general 
principle  of  the  Bible,  which  we  call  Providence,  or  the  moral 
government  of  God,  may  we  not  affirm,  that  as  an  object  of 
contemplation,  it  possesses  the  highest  attributes  of  sublimity  and 
beauty  ?  Where  shall  we  find  a  wider  fact  ?  Where  shall  we 
find  a  more  glorious  conception  ?  Where  shall  we  find  a  more 
exalted  study  ?  What  is  it,  but  the  scheme  of  policy  on  which 
the  jurisprudence  of  the  universe  is  administered  ?  What  is  it, 
but  the  record  book  on  which  time  is  ever  writing  the  fulfilled 
decrees  of  Jehovah,  and  turning  the  facts  of  prophecy  into  those 
of  history  ?  What  is  it,  but  one  vast,  unending  scroll,  upon 
whose  opening  leaves  all  the  high  and  holy  intelligences  of  hea- 
ven are  gazing  with  new  wonder  and  ever  growing  delight  ? 
There  is  something  sublime  in  the  idea  of  a  vast  empire  on  earth, 
like  that  of  ancient  Rome  :  something  grand  and  imposing  in 
the  scheme  of  its  policy,  the  sweep  of  its  history,  the  vigilant 
providence  of  its  government,  the  iron  rigor  of  its  authority. 
But  what  is  an  earthly  empire  with  all  its  provisions  of  wisdom 
and  power,  to  the  universal  and  eternal  government  of  God  ? 

And  yet  there  have  been  men,  who,  while  professing  admira- 
tion for  the  sublime  and  beautiful,  have  looked  with  iudiflferenco 
or  contempt  upon  the  Bible,  as  a  book  of  no  attractions.  But 
is  there  nothing  attractive  and  glorious  in  the  idea  of  a  govern- 
ment so  general  as  to  embrace  all  created  beings,  and  so  parti- 
cular as  not  to  overlook  or  neglect  the  lowest  link  in  "  being's 
endless  chain" — a  government  moving  on  forever  in  perfect 
equity,  in  unjarring  harmony,  with  irresistible  power,  to  the 
consummation  of  its  august  and  beneficent  designs  ?  Surely  it 
would  be  hard  to  find  the  dwelling-place  of  moral  grandeur, 


384  ORIGINAL   CONCEPTIONS  ;    OR, 

if  there  be  no  grandeur  in  the  idea  of  Divine  Providence.  But 
it  is  far  different.  The  most  gifted  miuds  that  have  adorned 
the  annals  of  modern  literature,  have  found  both  beauty  and 
sublimity,  as  well  as  consolation  and  joy,  in  this  great  scrip- 
tural truth  :  and  many  have  brought  the  noblest  powers  of 
genius  to  the  elucidation  of  its  profound  mysteries,  as  they  have 
sat  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  and  joined  in  the  invocation  of  Milton  : 

"  What  in  me  is  dark 
Illumine :  what  is  low,  raise  and  support; 
That  to  the  height  of  this  great  argument, 
I  may  assert  eternal  Providence 
And  justify  the  ways  of  God  to  men." 


III. THE    PERSONAL    CHARACTER    OF    CHRIST. 

liet  US  pass  now  to  a  third  illustration,  of  a  different  order  ; 
to  contemplate  an  object  of  exquisite  moral  beauty.  It  is  the 
person  and  character  of  Jesus  Christ — the  Scriptural  conception 
of  Immanuel,  as  revealed  in  the  prophets  and  portrayed  in  the 
New  Testament.  If  there  is  any  one  thing  in  the  Bible,  which 
comes  to  the  world  with  all  the  glory  of  a  new  discovery,  as 
original  as  it  is  peculiar,  it  is  the  idea  of  immaculate  virtue, 
as  embodied  in  the  life  and  character  of  Jesus  Christ.  Whether 
we  read  the  prophets  of  the  Old  Testament  or  the  evangelists 
of  the  New,  the  conception  of  his  person  and  character  is  the 
same,  shining  out  with  all  the  distinctness  of  a  living  presence. 
No  character  was  ever  drawn  in  bolder,  clearer  lines.  No  per- 
sonage in  human  history  stands  forth  more  prominently  to  every 
eye.  Our  idea  of  Socrates  or  Caesar,  of  Napoleon  or  Washing- 
ton, for  distinctness  of  outline  and  vividness  of  impression,  can- 
not be  compared  with  that  of  Jesus.     It  is  as  transparent  as 


OBJECTS    OF    SUBLIMITY    AND    DPJAUTY    IN   THE   BIBLE.    385 

the  light ;  it  is  as  uaiqae  as  it  is  transparent  ;  it  is  as  radiant 
with  moral  beauty  and  sublimity  as  it  is  original.  And  we  may 
safely  say,  there  is  no  one  thought  in  the  intellect  of  the  world 
more  definite — none  which  it  has  grasped  with  a  stronger  and 
fonder  hold — than  this  conception  of  the  personal  character  of 
the  great  founder  of  Christianity — Jesus  the  Son  of  man,  Jesus 
the  Son  of  God. 

Accordingly  we  fix  upon  this  sublime  impersonation  of  imma- 
culate virtue — this  incarnation  of  Divinity  in  a  sinless  humanity 
— this  living  personal  character  of  Jesus,  as  one  of  the  chief 
attractions  of  the  book  of  God.  There  is  no  such  example  to 
be  found  elsewhere  in  the  history  of  men.  There  is  no  such 
conception,  thus  embodied  and  exemplified,  in  any  other  book 
of  human  literature.  And  if  infidelity  could  prove  that  the 
Bible  is  all  a  fable,  and  religion  all  a  dream  ;  that  no  such  per- 
son as  Jesus  ever  lived  ;  that  the  character  is  not  real  but  ficti- 
tious— a  mere  creation  of  enthusiasm  and  romance :  still  the 
idea  remains,  the  conception  lives  and  can  never  die  :  it  is  there 
in  the  book,  and  it  is  here  all  over  the  world,  bright  and  glori- 
ous like  the  light  ;  and  even  if  it  were  a  mere  creation  of 
genius,  it  is  beyond  all  comparison,  the  most  sublime  and 
beautiful  creation  the  world  ever  heheld. 

In  Jesus  Christ  we  see  reflected,  as  the  moon  reflects  the 
sunlight,  all  the  virtues  that  can  be  conceived  of,  as  adorning 
the  moral  character  of  God.  In  his  person  we  see  Divine  glory 
equally  blended  with  human  perfection.  As  we  can  gaze  upon 
the  sunlight  with  unblasted  vision,  when  it  comes  to  us  from 
the  face  of  the  full  orb  of  night,  so  may  we  look  upon  the 
bright  beams  of  uncreated  Divinity,  as  they  shine  with  softened 
effulgence  from  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ.  All  the  lights  of 
celestial  virtue  beam  forth  in  his  character  :  all  the  glories  of 

17 


386  OEIGINAL    CONCEPTIONS  ;    OR,  • 

Divinity  and  humanity  cluster  around  his  person.  He  is  at  once 
the  highest  model  of  human  excellence,  and  the  brightest  mani- 
festation of  Divine  perfection,  which  the  world  has  ever  seen 
exemplified  in  a  living  man.  Nay,  more,  his  character  is  the 
highest  conception  of  these  assembled  virtues  which  the  human 
mind  has  ever  attained.  It  is  all  light  without  a  shadow — all 
beauty  without  a  spot — all  gold  without  alloy — combining  in 
one  the  peculiar  virtues  of  both  sexes,  and  all  the  essential 
attributes  of  God  and  man.  Well  might  the  ancient  prophet 
describe  him  as  "  Wonderful,  Counsellor,  the  mighty  God,  the 
everlasting  Father,  and  the  Prince  of  Peace." 

In  the  whole  history  of  his  life  and  character  on  earth,  as 
given  in  the  New  Testament,  there  is  such  a  beautiful  blending 
of  Divinity  with  humanity — such  an  exact  equilibrium  between 
all  the  circumstances  of  humility  and  grandeur — that  the  chal- 
lenge may  be  safely  made,  "  Prove  him  to  be  a  man  and  we 
will  prove  him  to  be  God  :  or  prove  him  to  be  a  God,  and  we 
will  at  once  prove  him  a  man."  These  circumstances,  which 
furnish  one  of  the  most  touching  and  fruitful  themes  of  pulpit 
eloquence  have  been  beautifully  grouped  together  by  Maclauriu 
and  other  great  preachers  ;  but  perhaps  by  no  one  more  strikingly 
than  by  Dr.  Baker,  in  the  following  passage  : 

*'  See  him  at  the  grave  of  Lazarus  !  He  weeps  like  a  man  ; 
and  then  with  authority,  says,  Lazarus  !  come  forth  !  like  a 
God.  Approaching  the  barren  fig-tree,  he  hungers,  like  a  man  ; 
and  then,  with  a  word,  withers  the  fig-tree  away,  like  a  God. 
During  a  raging  storm  on  the  sea  of  Tiberias,  he  lay  in  the 
hinder  part  of  the  ship  with  his  head  upon  a  pillow — he  slept 
like  a  man.  Being  called  upon,  he  rose  and  rebuked  the  winds 
and  the  sea,  like  a  God.  Having  wrought  a  stupendous  mira- 
cle, he  goes  into  a  mountain  apart  to  pray,  like  a  man,  and  at 


OBJECTS    OF    SUBLIMITY    AND    BEAUTY    IN   THE   BIBLE.    387 

the  fourth  watch  of  the  night  he  comes  to  his  disciples,  walking 
upon  the  water,  like  a  God.  As  a  man  he  pays  tribute  money  : 
as  a  God  he  causes  a  fish  to  bring  him  the  tribute  money. 
Nailed  to  the  cross  he  suffers  like  a  man.  And  vet  in  the 
midst  of  his  sufferings  he  opens  the  gates  of  paradise  to  the 
dying  thief  like  a  God.  In  yonder  sepulchre,  the  hope  of 
Israel,  wrapt  in  the  winding  sheet,  lies  pale  and  cold  in  death, 
like  a  man.  But  lo  I  in  the  morning  of  the  third  day,  by  his 
own  immortal  energies,  he  burst  the  bars  of  death  and  rose 
triumphant,  like  a  God.  After  the  resurrection,  he  meets  his 
disciples,  takes  a  piece  of  broiled  fish  and  of  honeycomb  and 
eats  with  them  as  a  man.  He  then  leads  them  out  to  Bethany 
and  blesses  them,  and  as  he  blesses  them  ascends  in  a  cloud  of 
radiant  majesty,  far  above  all  heavens,  a  God  confessed  !  God 
is  gone  up  with  a  shout  !  The  Lord  with  the  sound  of  a  trumpet.'^ 
On  whatever  side  we  behold  him,  his  character  is  new  and 
wonderful,  unlike  any  other  in  history.  As  the  Son  of  the  Holy 
One,  incarnate,  the  brightness  of  the  Father's  glory,  and  the 
express  image  of  his  person,  there  dwells  in  him  "  all  the  fullness 
of  the  Godhead  bodily," — he  is  God  manifest  in  the  flesh.  As 
the  son  of  Man,  born  of  a  woman,  there  cluster  around  his 
character  all  those  lineaments  of  grace  and  gentleness  and  sym- 
pathy, which  make  him  a  perfect  exemplar  to  woman  and  help- 
less childhood,  as  he  is  to  ripened  manhood.  As  the  Saviour 
of  the  world,  the  Prophet,  Priest  and  King  of  human  redemp- 
tion, he  possesses  all  the  beauty  and  attractiveness  of  the  most 
complete  adaptation  to  our  wants  and  woes,  as  guilty,  helpless 
sinners.  As  a  friend,  brother  and  Redeemer,  there  is  found  in 
him  every  attribute,  every  qualification  that  the  soul  of  man 
needs  to  atone  for  its  guilt,  and  satisfy  its  longings  after  life 
and  immortality.     And  as  a  man,  tabernacling  amongst  men  for 


388  ORIGINAL    CONCEPTIONS  ;    OR, 

a  season,  we  behold  ia  his  life  and  character  all  those  noble 
traits  of  truth,  justice,  honor,  wisdom,  courage,  integrity,  forti- 
tude, self-denial,  and  beneficence,  which  have  made  him  a  model 
of  absolute  perfection  to  all  nations  and  generations  of  men. 

"  Few  and  precious  are  the  words  which  the  lips  of  wisdom 
utter  ;"  but  when  did  wisdom  ever  utter  such  words  of  eloquence 
and  power  as  fell  from  the  lips  of  him,  who,  on  the  testimony  of 
his  foes,  "  spake  as  never  man  spake  !"  When  did  majesty  ever 
lay  aside  its  robes,  and  stoop  from  its  throne  with  such  graceful 
condescension  and  winning  love,  as  when  the  Son  of  God  preached 
the  Gospel  to  the  poor,  and  listened  to  the  cry  of  men  of  low 
estate  ?  When  did  high,  heroic  courage,  strong  in  the  panoply 
of  truth  and  duty,  ever  march  more  steadily  onward  to  its  goal, 
despite  the  opposition  of  earth  and  hell,  than  when  Jesus  of  Naz- 
areth gave  his  life  for  the  salvation  of  the  lost  ?  When  did  ben- 
eficence, like  an  angel  of  mercy  descending  from  the  skies,  ever 
go  forth  on  such  a  mission  of  good-will  to  the  outcast  and  the 
perishing,  as  when  this  man  of  sorrows,  who  had  not  where  to 
lay  his  liead,  trod  the  hills  of  Judea  and  the  valleys  of  Galilee, 
in  one  long  weary  pilgrimage,  to  inaugurate  charity  among  the 
virtues,  and  teach  the  world  what  no  philosopher  had  ever 
taught,  that  "it  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive  V 
And  when  before  did  our  humanity  ever  clothe  itself  in  such 
habiliments  of  celestial  love  and  mercy,  as  when  the  sufferer  of 
Calvary  poured  forth  that  dying  prayer  :  "  Father,  forgive  them 
they  know  not  what  they  do  ?" 

"  The  founder  of  Christianity,"  says  Dr.  J.  W.  Alexander, 
"  stands  forth  in  a  character  absolutely  original  and  unique. 
The  attempt  was  never  made  to  trace  it  to  any  foregoing  exem- 
plar. Neither  history  nor  fiction  approaches  to  anything  which 
could  serve  even  as  the  germ  of  such  a  description.     The  pic- 


OBJECTS    OF    SUBLIMITY    AND    BEAUTY    IN    THE    BIBLE.    3S9 

ture  is  intensely  and  sublimely  moral.  With  a  reserve  almost 
without  a  parallel,  there  is  not  a  touch  or  color  thrown  in,  to 
gratify  even  what  might  bo  considered  a  reasonable  curiosity. 
Hence  there  is  not  a  syllable  respecting  the  outward  figure, 
countenance  or  demeanor  of  our  Lord." 

Whence  came  this  extraordinary  manifestation  of  living 
character  in  the  Son  of  Mary  !  Or  if,  as  skepticism  would 
suggest,  it  be  not  real,  whence  came  this  sublime  conception  of 
character  so  far  surpassing  the  highest  ideal  of  the  poets  and 
sages  of  ancient  literature  ?  Was  it  from  heaven  or  of  men  ? 
If  from  heaven,  then  the  character  was  real,  and  the  wonder  is 
explained  by  the  Divine  origin  of  Christianity.  But  if  of  men, 
who  shall  explain  the  mystery  ?  It  is  abundantly  manifest,  that 
until  infidelity  can  account  for  the  phenomenon  of  the  character 
of  Jesus,  on  grounds  more  satisfactory  than  those  which  derive 
it  from  heaven,  it  must  stand  as  it  always  has  stood,  a  stiong 
and  unanswerable  vindication  of  the  truth  of  Christianity.  Says 
Dr.  R.  J.  Breckenridge,  in  his  admirable  discourse  on  the  Inter- 
nal Evidence,  "  I  do  not  see  but  that  it  is  far  more  rational  to 
admit,  with  all  the  writers  of  the  book,  that  the  entire  concep- 
tion they  all  had  of  the  Son  of  God,  was  divinely  communicated 
to  them,  than  to  suppose  that  any  one  of  them  could  have 
originated  and  developed  such  a  conception,  much  less  that  all 
of  them  could  have  wrought  upon  that  glorious  composition, 
each  in  a  manner  working  out  what  the  rest  had  left  unfinished, 
and  that  the  perfect  work  should  have  been  what  we  now  behold 
it.  The  entire  idea  of  Jesus  of  Nazereth,  taken  as  a  whole,  is 
as  much  superhuman  as  the  alleged  manner  of  his  birth  ; 
and  the  working  out  of  that  idea  is  as  miraculous  as  the  incar- 
nation." 

Is  there  no  charm  then  in  a  character  like  this  ?     Shall  men 


890  ORIGINAL    CONCEPTIONS  ;    OR, 

admire,  and  weep  over,  the  renl  or  imaginary  heroes  of  history 
and  romance,  and  yet  find  nothing  beautiful  in  the  history, 
sublime  in  the  virtue,  and  godlike  in  the  character  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  ?  Has  any  poet  or  novelist  ever  painted  an  ideal  of 
such  perfection,  or  told  a  story  of  such  tender  and  tragic  inter- 
est ?  And  shall  we  be  told,  that  the  book  which  has  given 
the  world  this  narrative,  and  originated  this  unique  and  bril- 
liant conception,  is  not  worthy  to  occupy  the  front  rank  of  sub- 
limity and  genius  in  the  literature  of  the  world?  Infidelity 
itself  has  bowed  in  admiring  homage  before  the  superior  lustre 
of  the  life  of  Christ,  and  by  the  lips  of  Rousseau,  has  virtually 
confessed  that  there  is  a  Divine  inspiration  in  the  book.  "  It  is 
impossible,"  says  he,  "  to  rise  from  the  reading  of  it  (the  Gos- 
pel), without  feeling  a  moral  improvement.  Look  at  the  books 
of  the  philosophers  with  all  their  pomp  :  how  little  they  are, 
compared  with  this  !  Shall  we  say,  that  the  history  of  the 
Gospel  is  a  pure  fiction  ?  This  is  not  the  style  of  fiction  ;  and 
the  history  of  Socrates,  which  nobody  doubts,  rests  upon  less 
evidence  than  that  of  Jesus  Christ.  And  after  all,  this  is  but 
shifting  the  difficulty,  not  answering  it.  The  supposition  that 
several  persons  had  united  to  fabricate  this  book  is  more  incon- 
ceivable than  that  one  person  should  have  supplied  the  subject 
of  it.  The  spirit  which  it  breathes,  the  morality  which  it  incul- 
cates, could  never  have  been  the  invention  of  Jewish  authors  : 
and  the  Gospel  possesses  characters  of  truth  so  striking,  so 
perfectly  inimitable,  that  the  inventor  would  be  a  more  aston- 
ishing object  than  the  hero." 

But  perhaps  some  one  may  say,  "  I  do  not  see  the  fitness  of 
this  high  eulogy  on  the  Gospel,  in  its  delineation  of  character. 
The  character  of  Jesus  is  indeed  original  and  beautiful,  but  are 
there  not  also  original  and  beautiful  descriptions  of  character 


OBJECTS    OF    SUBLIMITY    AND    BEAUTY    IN   THE   BIBLE.    391 

iu  Milton,  in  Shakspeare,  in  Walter  Scott,  and  other  great 
masters  of  the  art  of  writing  ?"  Certainly  :  but  as  the  perfec- 
tion of  all  art  is  to  conceal  the  art  by  which  it  is  done,  so  that 
it  shall  appear  to  be  nothing  but  nature  itself,  the  wonder  here 
is,  how  men  who  had  no  learning,  and  are  known  to  have  had 
no  experience  in  the  art  of  writing,  could  have  reached  its  per- 
fection so  completely,  as  the  Evangelists.  The  highest  of  all 
attainments  in  the  art  of  delineation,  as  a  recent  critic  well  re- 
marks— historic,  poetic  and  dramatic  delineation — is  to  set  the 
character  before  us,  without  describing  it  at  all,  except  by  its 
deeds — just  to  set  it  in  motion  and  let  it  act  ;  and  so  speak  for 
itself,  without  note  or  comment  from  the  writer.  The  easiest  of 
all  modes,  and  the  least  masterly,  is  the  modern  fashion  of  pea- 
painting  adopted  by  our  novelists,  who  compensate  for  deeds  in 
the  hero,  by  their  own  words  of  description,  without  which  we 
should  hardly  know  the  character.  The  next  lowest  method  is 
to  set  the  persons  to  talking — talking  to  each  other  iu  dialogue, 
or  to  themselves  in  soliloquy  or  to  some  imaginary  third  person 
— and  so  revealing  what  is  in  them — what  they  have  done  or 
can  do.  The  highest  and  most  difficult  of  all  methods  is  that 
of  letting  the  outward  actions  of  the  life  tell  the  inward  story 
of  the  character.  And  that  is  the  one  adopted  by  all  the 
sacred  writers,  especially  by  those  who  have  set  forth  the  charac- 
ter of  Jesus.  Who  will  say  it  was  ever  surpassed,  or  even 
equalled  ?  Whence  this  perfection  ?  The  wonder  is  not 
merely,  how  the  Evangelists  could  invent  such  a  character  as 
that  of  Jesus,  but  in  case  no  original  was  before  them,  or  even 
supposing  there  was,  how  they,  unlettered,  unartistic  Jews, 
could  describe  it  as  they  have  done — by  leaving  it  alone,  to 
live  and  move,  and  teach  and  pray,  and  die,  without  one  word 
of  eulogy  from  them. 


392  OKIGINAL  conceptions;  or, 


IV. THE  IDEA   OF    SPECIAL  DIVINE  INFLUENCE. 

Our  next  illustration  of  moral  beauty,  revealed  in  the  Scrip* 
tures,  may  be  taken  from  the  work  ascribed  to  the  agency  of 
the  Divine  Spirit  in  the  hearts  of  men.  No  reader  of  the  Old 
Testament  or  the  New  can  fail  to  see  what  prominence  this 
great  fact  everywhere  holds.  It  is  one  of  the  widest,  most 
important,  and  most  extraordinary  facts  of  the  book.  The  con- 
ception, of  a  special  Divine  inspiration,  illumination,  influence, 
agency,  or  whatever  it  may  be  named,  is  before  us  on  every 
page.  Besides  the  idea  of  a  universal  Divine  Providence  con- 
stantly exerting  itself  over  the  world,  the  Scriptures  are  full  of 
another  grand  idea  of  like  character — even  that  of  an  influence 
from  God,  direct  and  powerful,  in  the  minds  of  men.  The 
Scriptures  uniformly  refer  their  own  existence  to  this  agency. 
The  sacred  writers  invariably  ascribe  all  that  is  good  in  them- 
selves, and  all  the  moral  good  in  the  world,  to  this  exalted 
source.  The  doctrine  of  Divine  Providence  is  not  more  clearly 
revealed,  than  this  great  truth  of  special  Divine  influence. 
There  are  manifold  forms  of  it — diversities  of  gifts,  diversities 
of  operations,  differences  of  administrations — but  in  all,  it  is  one 
and  the  same  agency,  whether  called  the  Spirit,  or  the  Com- 
forter, or  the  Holy  Ghost,  or  the  inspiration  of  the  Almighty. 
To  this  influence,  as  the  fountain-head,  the  Bible  traces  all  the 
streams  of  Divine  truth  and  grace  and  holiness  that  have  ever 
flowed  down  into  our  apostate  world.  To  this  influence,  as  the 
efficient  producing  cause,  the  Bible  refers  all  the  phenomena  of 
moral  renovation  and  spiritual  life  that  have  ever  been  exhibit- 
ed in  human  character.  All  the  inspired  revelations  of  Divine 
truth  that  make  up  the    canon  of  Scripture  ;  all  the  mani- 


OBJECTS    OF    SUBLIMITY    AND   BEAUTY    IN   THE    BIBLE.    393 

festations  of  the  spirit  of  prophecy  in  ancient  times  ;  all  the 
wonderful  exhibitions  of  spiritual  power  on  the  day  of  Pentecost ; 
all  the  seasons  of  revival  and  all  the  cases  of  conversion 
and  reformation  that  have  marked  the  history  of  the  church  ; 
all  the  virtues  and  graces  of  holiness  that  have  adorned 
the  character  of  the  Christian  in  every  age  and  nation — all 
Divine  truth,  grace  and  holiness  in  the  world,  find  their  source 
and  centre  in  this  great  idea  of  the  word  of  God — the  influence 
and  agency  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  All  these  worketh  that  one 
and  the  self-same  Spirit — the  only  true  light  to  enlighten  every 
man  that  cometh  into  the  world. 

Now  without  stopping  to  debate  the  evidences  for  the  reality 
of  this  great  doctrine,  suppose  we  lay  hold  upon  the  bare  con- 
ception as  presented  in  the  Bible,  and  contemplate  it  simply  as 
an  object  of  thought.  Is  it  not  manifestly  one  of  sublimity 
and  beauty,  calculated  to  inspire  the  mind  of  him  who  holds  it 
as  the  truth  of  God,  with  sentiments  of  the  highest  enthusiasm  ? 
We  have  seen  the  glory  of  Divinity  as  it  shines  in  the  face  of 
Immanuel.  But  here  is  a  Divinity  that  stirs  within  ourselves, 
and  may  shine  forth  in  all  our  Christian  graces.  "  The  spirit 
that  I  will  give  you  shall  be  in  you,  and  shall  abide  with  you 
forever."  That  Spirit  which  descended  from  heaven  on  the  day 
of  Pentecost,  and  has  filled  the  church  with  glory,  shall  come 
to  our  relief  and  make  his  abode  in  our  hearts.  To  the  good 
man,  struggling  against  manifold  temptations,  what  thought 
can  be  more  cheering,  more  sublime,  than  the  inhabitation  of 
the  Spirit  of  God  ?  And  will  the  Lord  indeed  dwell  with  men  ? 
Shall  these  hearts  be  the  subjects  of  Divine  influence  ?  Shall 
these  bodies  be  the  dwelling-place  of  the  Holy  One  ?  Yes,  this 
is  the  precise  idea  of  the  Spirit  given  in  the  Scriptures.  "  Know 
ye  not  that  ye  are  the  temples  of  the  Holy  Ghost  ?"     Beauti- 


394  ORIGINAL    CONCEPTIONS  ;    OR, 

fally  has  it  been  said,  that  the  Most  High  has  two  favorite 
dwelling-places — the  one  in  Heaven,  the  other  in  the  contrite 
heart. 

Then  let  a  man  grasp  this  thought  in  all  its  fullness — let  him 
take  it  as  he  finds  it  in  the  book  of  God,  and  believe  it  with  all 
his  heart — let  him  think,  let  him  know,  as  he  will  know  by  an 
inward  witness,  that  his  own  heart  has  been  the  subject  of  this 
mighty  operation  of  God — let  him  feel  that  he  carries  about  with 
him,  in  his  daily  walk  and  conversation,  this  Divine  monitor,  as 
an  ever  present  helper,  guide,  comforter — and  do  you  not  see, 
how  such  a  man  is  armed  for  the  great  battle  of  life  with  more 
than  mortal  armor  ?  how  he  is  elevated  in  the  scale  of  being  by 
the  coii33;oasii3ss  of  such  companionship  with  God  ?  how 
this  one  great  doctrine  of  Scripture  has  filled  his  mind  with 
emotions  which,  in  their  very  nature,  are  sublime  and  beautiful 
and  glorious  ?  how  by  being  made  partaker  of  the  Divine 
nature,  through  the  influence  of  the  Spirit,  he  is  at  once  allied 
with  all  that  is  high  and  holy  in  the  spiritual  and  eternal 
world  !  The  Bible  knows  no  such  thought  as  the  deification  of 
men,  or  the  canonization  of  saints  :  but  it  gives  us  an  infinitely 
grander  thought  in  this  descent  of  the  Spirit  into  the  bosom  of 
the  church — this  blessed  inhabitation  of  God  in  the  heart  of 
every  regenerate  man — this  Divine  light  shining  in  the  midst  of 
a  dark  world. 

What  are  all  the  apparitions  and  metamorphoses  of  gods  and 
goddesses  in  classical  poetry,  compared  with  this  mighty  in 
dwelling  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  by  which  a  sinner  like  Saul  of 
Tarsus,  breathing  out  threatenings  and  slaughter,  is  transformed 
into  an  apostle  of  the  Lamb  ;  by  which  thousands  have  passed 
from  spiritual  darkness  and  death  to  the  marvelous  light  of 
God's  dear  children  ;    by  which  whole  nations  have  been  re- 


OBJECTS    OF    SUBLIMITY    AND    BEAUTY    IN    THE    BIBLE.    395 

claimed  from  barbarism  and  idolatry  ;  by  which  this  sin-polluted 
world  is  to  be  ultimately  disenthralled  and  redeemed  ?  If  any 
one  wishes  to  appreciate  this  thought  in  all  its  grandeur,  let 
him  read  such  a  passage  as  Macaulay's  description  of  the 
English  Puritans — let  him  mark  how  the  whole  force  of  that 
gorgeous  portraiture  turns  upon  this  one  sublime  idea  of  the 
Bible — the  indwelling  of  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  and  let  him  re- 
member that  it  is  as  true  now  of  the  humblest  man  who  has 
been  converted,  as  it  was  of  the  Puritans. 

"  On  the  rich  and  the  eloquent,  on  nobles  and  priests  they 
looked  down  with  contempt :  for  they  esteemed  themselves  rich 
in  a  more  precious  treasure,  and  eloquent  in  a  more  sublime 
language ;  nobles  by  the  right  of  an  earlier  creation,  and  priests 
by  the  imposition  of  a  mightier  hand.  The  very  meanest  of 
them  was  a  being  to  whose  fate  a  mysterious  and  terrible  im- 
portance belonged — on  whose  slightest  actions  the  spirits  of 
light  and  darkness  looked  with  anxious  interest — who  had  been 
destined  before  heaven  and  earth  were  created  to  enjoy  a  feli- 
city which  should  continue  when  heaven  and  earth  should  have 
passed  away.  Events  which  short-sighted  politicians  ascribed 
to  earthly  causes  had  been  ordained  on  his  account.  For  his 
sake  empires  had  risen  and  flourished  and  decayed.  For  his 
sake  the  Almighty  had  proclaimed  his  will  by  the  pen  of  the 
evangelist,  and  the  harp  of  the  prophet.  He  had  been  rescued 
by  no  common  deliverer,  from  the  grasp  of  no  common  foe.  He 
had  been  ransomed  by  the  sweat  of  no  vulgar  agony,  by  the 
blood  of  no  earthly  sacrifice.  It  was  for  him  that  the  sun  had 
been  darkened,  that  the  rocks  had  been  rent,  that  the  dead  had 
arisen,  that  all  nature  had  shuddered  at  the  sufferings  of  he? 
expiring  God." 

Now  it  may  not  appear  whether  the  eloquent  essayist  in  this 


396  ORIGINAL   CONCEPTIONS  ;    OK, 

passage  approved,  or  even  believed  in,  these  high  thoughts 
and  feelings  of  the  Puritans  :  but  it  is  manifest  that  he  writes 
as  one  who  appreciates  their  unspeakable  beaufj  and  sublimity; 
and  it  is  equally  manifest,  that  all  these  lofty  sentiments  touch- 
ing the  worth  and  destiny  of  a  soul  redeemed,  are  the  legitimate, 
logical  offshoots  of  the  grand  Scriptural  idea  of  the  regenera- 
ting, sanctifying,  indwelling  Spirit  of  God.  The  fact  may  not 
be  heralded  amongst  the  great  events  of  human  history,  the 
idea  may  not  always  find  admirers  in  the  walks  of  this  world's 
literature — but  a  soul  redeemed  to  God,  restored  to  spiritual 
life,  disenthralled  from  sin  and  Satan,  prepared  for  immortal 
glory  by  a  special  Divine  Influence,  must  ever  stand  as  one  of 
the  most  sublime  and  wonderful  revelations  of  the  Bible — one 
of  the  most  beautiful  of  all  its  conceptions,  one  of  the  most 
blessed  of  all  its  facts.  If  there  is  grandeur  in  this  description, 
it  is  because  of  the  unutterable  grandeur  of  the  idea  which  the 
Bil^le  has  given  to  the  world. 

V. THE    CHURCH    OF    GOD. 

Let  us  pass  to  another  illustration.  It  is  the  idea  of  the 
Church  or  kingdom  of  God  as  revealed  in  the  Scriptures. 
Nothing  can  be  more  certain  than  that  there  is  a  church  in 
the  world,  that  it  is  a  Divine  institution,  and  that  the  v/hole 
conception  of  it  originated  in  the  Scriptures.  And  whether  we 
consider  its  origin,  its  design,  its  economy,  its  influence,  or  its 
destination,  it  is  wholly  unlike  every  other  institution  which 
has  ever  been  founded  amongst  men.  The  Scriptural  idea  of  it, 
is  that  of  a  kingdom,  visible  and  invisible,  whose  sovereign 
lawgiver  and  head  is  Christ,  or  God  in  Christ,  whose  subjects 
are  gathered  from  all  nations  and  generations  of  men,  whose 


OBJECTS    OF   SUBLIMITY    AND    BEAUTY    IN    THE   BIBLE.    397 

history  embraces  the  whole  course  of  time,  whose  theatre  of 
actiou  is  first  the  earth  and  then  the  heavens,  and  whose 
final  cause  is  the  manifestation  of  the  Divine  glory  to  all  the 
universe. 

It  is  of  this  church  that  the  prophet  Daniel  speaks,  when 
interpretmg  the  dream  of  Nebuchadnezzar — "And  in  the 
days  of  these  kings  shall  the  God  of  heaven  set  up  a  kingdom 
which  shall  never  be  destroyed  :  and  the  kingdom  shall  not  be 
left  to  other  people,  but  it  shall  break  in  pieces  and  consume 
all  these  kingdoms,  and  it  shall  stand  forever."  This  is  the 
"  stone  cut  out  of  the  mountains  without  hands,"  that  should 
break  in  pieces  the  iron  and  the  clay,  the  brass,  the  silver  and 
the  gold,  till  it  should  become  a  great  mountain  itself  and  fill 
the  whole  earth.  It  is  this  that  forms  the  subject  of  a  subse- 
quent sublime  prophecy,  when  he  says — "I  saw  in  the  night 
visions,  and  behold  !  one  like  the  Son  of  Man  came  with  the 
clouds  of  heaven,  and  came  to  the  Ancient  of  days,  and  they 
brought  him  near  before  him.  And  there  was  given  him  do- 
minion and  glory  and  a  kingdom,  that  all  people,  nations  and 
languages  should  serve  him  ;  his  dominion  is  an  everlastino* 
dominion,  which  shall  not  pass  away,  and  his  kingdom,  that 
which  shall  not  be  destroyed."  This  is  the  kingdom  which  the 
apostle  Paul  calls  the  "  Church  of  the  living  God,  the  pillar 
and  ground  of  the  truth,"  and  of  which  he  speaks  in  another 
place,  saying — "  God  created  all  things  by  Jesus  Christ,  to 
the  intent  that  now  unto  principalities  and  powers  in  heavenly 
places  might  be  known,  by  the  church,  the  manifold  wisdom  of 
God,  according  to  the  eternal  purpose  which  he  purposed  in  Christ 
Jesus  our  Lord."  This  is  that  kingdom  of  heaven,  or  church 
of  the  Messiah,  which  after  four  tliousand  years  of  develop- 
ment and  progress  through  rites  and   symbols,  shadows  and 


398 


propliecies,  was  at  last  fully  organized  and  inaugurated  by 
Christ  himself,  and  placed  upon  a  foundation  of  chartered  right 
and  duty  and  privilege,  on  which  it  shall  stand,  until  the  hour  of 
its  transition  from  earth  to  heaven,  from  the  militant  to  the 
triumphant  state. 

Such  is  the  conception  of  the  church  as  revealed  in  the 
Scriptures,  and  in  part  exemplified  through  all  past  history. 
And  the  question  for  us  now  is,  where  shall  we  find  in  history  a 
more  magnificent  conception  ?  Look  for  a  moment  at  the  ele- 
ments of  moral  grandeur  which  cluster  around  this  venerable 
institution. 

First  is  the  element  of  a  Divine  origin.  It  is  built  upon  the 
"  foundation  of  prophets  and  apostles,  Jesus  Christ  himself 
being  the  chief  corner  stone."  Its  origin  dates  from  the  begin- 
ing  of  the  human  race  ;  its  conception  goes  back  to  the  eternal 
counsels  of  the  Divine  mind.  At  its  last  great  inauguration, 
nearly  two  thousand  years  ago,  its  Divine  founder  exclaimed — 
"  Upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my  church,  and  the  gates  of  hell 
shall  not  prevail  against  it."  The  next  element  of  grandeur  is 
its  universal  character.  It  gathers  its  subjects  from  all  the 
ranks  of  men — from  all  nations  and  races  and  generations  of 
men.  Its  last  grand  commission  to  its  ambassadors  is — "  Go  ye 
into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature." 
No  pent-up  philosophy  confined  to  the  few — no  exclusive  system, 
bounded  by  zones  and  mountains,  is  ever  suggested  by  the  Scrip- 
tural idea  of  the  church.  Its  provisions,  its  promises,  its  blessings 
are  as  wide  as  the  world,  as  bountiful  as  the  light  of  day,  as 
universal  as  the  all-surrounding  air. 

A  third  element  is  its  irresistible  moral  power.  Its  subjects  are 
all  made  willing  in  the  day  of  God's  power  :  but  though  free  and 
voluntary,  they  are  yet  attached  to  their  sovereign  Head  by 


OBJECTS    OF   SUBLIMITY   AND    BEACTT    IN    THE   BIBLE.    399 

an  allegiance  which  has  no  parallel  amongst  men.  The  wea- 
pons of  its  warfare  are  not  carnal,  but  they  are  mighty 
through  God,  to  the  pulling  down  of  strongholds.  And  they 
are  as  peaceful  as  they  are  mighty.  It  breathes  peace  on  earth 
and  good  will  to  all  men  ;  and  yet  its  power  is  irresistible.  The 
sublime  language  of  the  Master  w^as,  "  My  kingdom  is  not  of 
this  world."  "  Put  up  thy  sword  into  its  sheath,  for  they  that 
take  the  sword  shall  perish  by  the  sword."  With  the  sword 
of  the  Spirit,  in  the  simple  majesty  of  truth,  and  in  God's 
great  name,  it  goes  forth  to  wage  an  unceasing,  uncompromis- 
ing, universal  battle  against  all  the  powers  of  sin,  both  human 
and  infernal  ;  and  still,  in  the  strength  of  these  alone,  its  march 
has  been  onward  through  the  fires  of  ten  thousand  persecutions, 
conquering  and  to  conquer.  All  other  institutions  and  systems 
and  kingdoms  of  antiquity  have  perished  with  the  men  who 
made  them  ;  while  the  church  of  God  renews  her  youth  day 
by  day.  The  more  she  has  been  pressed  down  and  trampled 
in  the  dust  by  apostate  men,  and  infidel  nations,  the  more  has 
she  raised  her  head  in  triumphant  glory. 

And  still  another  element  of  sublimity  clustering  around  the 
idea  of  the  church  is  that  of  duration,  perpetual  duration.  It 
has  come  down  to  us  across  the  graves  of  all  past  generations 
of  men  ;  it  shall  embrace  the  whole  onward  sweep  of  time,  till 
time  shall  end  ;  and  then  its  orbit  is  to  be  projected  amid 
those  eternal  cycles  which  shall  map  the  new  heavens  and  the 
new  earth.  The  language  of  Divine  promise  addressed  to  the 
great  Head  of  the  Church  is  in  such  words  as  these — "  Thy 
throne,  0  God,  is  forever  and  ever."  "  They  shall  fear  thee  as 
long  as  the  sun  and  moon  endure,  throughout  all  generations. 
He  shall  come  down  like  rain  upon  the  mown  grass  :  as 
show^ers  that  water  the  earth.     In  his  davs  shall  the  ri^^hteoua 


400  ORIGINAL   CONCEPTIONS  ;    OR, 

flourish  :    aud    abundaiUce    of   peace   so   long   as   the    moon 
endureth." 

Men  are  accustomed  to  speak  of  the  dignity  of  history.  And 
truly  there  is  a  sublime  moral  grandeur  in  the  spectacle  of 
great  states  and  nations  as  recorded  on  the  historic  page. 
You  have  perhaps  read  "  Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall  of  the 
Roman  Empire,"  until  your  conceptions  of  human  power  and 
greatness  have  been  expanded  and  ennobled  by  the  study.  But 
what  is  the  Roman  Empire,  with  its  untold  populations,  its 
arts,  and  its  arms,  its  learning  and  its  laws,  its  history  of  more 
than  twenty  centuries  from  its  origin  to  its  downfall,  compared 
with  this  vast  commonwealth  of  the  saints — this  universal 
state  of  God — the  church  which  at  once  pervades  and  compre- 
hends all  other  states  ;  whose  jurisdiction  extends  over  all  the 
land  and  all  the  sea  ;  whose  history  is  coeval  and  coextensive 
with  the  race  of  man  ;  whose  destiny  it  has  been  and  still  is 
to  shine  in  a  dark  world,  like  the  hallowed  bush  of  Horeb, 
ever  burning  but  never  consumed  ?  Indeed,  if  there  is  an 
object  of  moral  grandeur  in  the  history  of  the  world,  it  is  to 
be  found  in  the  recorded  and  yet  to  be  fulfilled  history  of  the 
church  of  God,  as  developed  in  the  Scriptures.  It  is  the  idea 
of  Christ  in  history,  reigning  and  ruling  over  all,  till  the  last 
enemy  shall  be  put  under  his  feet. 

VI. THE    COMMON    BROTHERHOOD    OF   MAN. 

The  next  leading  idea  which  we  select  from  the  mass  of 
Scripture  truths,  as  an  object  of  moral  beauty  and  sublimity,  is 
the  doctrine  of  man's  common  brotherhood,  coupled  with  its 
two  great  essential  corollaries,  human  equality  aud  liberty. 
We  believe  that  the  world  is  more  indebted  to  the  Bible  for 


OBJECTS    OF    SUBLIMITY    AND    BEAUTY    IN   THE   BIBLE.    401 

these  sublime  and  glorious  thoughts,  than  it  has  ever  been  will- 
ing to  acknowledge.  The  Bible  does  not  more  distinctly  reveal 
to  us  the  relation  in  which  we  stand  to  God,  as  his  creatures, 
than  it  docs  the  relation  in  which  we  all  stand  to  each  other  as 
fellow  creatures.  It  is  the  relation  of  a  common  brotherhood — 
the  idea  of  one  vast  family,  of  which  God  is  the  head  and 
Father,  extending  through  all  generations,  embracing  all  the 
races  and  nations  of  men.  "  God,"  says  the  apostle  to  the 
philosophers  of  Athens,  "  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of 
men,  for  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  hath  deter- 
mined the  time  before  appointed,  and  the  bounds  of  their  habi- 
tation ;  that  they  should  seek  the  Lord,  if  haply  they  might 
feel  after  him,  and  find  him,  though  he  be  not  far  from  every 
one  of  us  :  for  in  him  we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  bemg  ; 
as  certain  also  of  your  own  poets  have  said,  for  we  are  also  his 
offspring."  In  this  sublime  annunciation  of  truth,  the  doctrine 
of  man's  common  brotherhood  is  not  only  fully  set  forth,  but 
placed  upon  an  immovable  basis,  even  that  of  a  Divine  origin. 
All  men  are  brothers,  because  all  men  are  children  of  one 
Father.  Indeed  the  Bible,  from  first  to  last,  binds  all  men 
into  a  common  brotherhood  by  a  double  tie,  and  that  the  tie  of 
blood — the  blood  of  creation  and  the  blood  of  redemption.  Of 
one  blood  he  hath  made  all  nations  of  men  :  and  by  one  blood, 
the  priceless  blood  of  Immanuel,  he  hath  purchased  redemp- 
tion for  all.  A  common  origin  and  a  common  salvation,  implying 
a  common  nature,  constitute  the  extreme  links  of  that  chain 
which  encircles  all  the  tribes  of  men,  and  binds  them  in  broth- 
erhood around  the  eternal  throne.  So  that  if  you  ask  why  men 
are  brothers,  you  have  the  double  reason  in  that  declaration  of 
Scripture,  "  There  is  one  God,  and  one  mediator  between  God 
and  men,  the  man  Christ  Jesus." 


402 


Now  this  conceptioy.  of  the  unity  of  the  human  race  and  con- 
sequent brotherhood  of  man,  belongs  in  a  special  manner  to  the 
Scriptures.  It  is  chiefly  a  revelation  of  the  New  Testament. 
It  never  was  the  received  doctrine  of  any  ancient  system  of 
philosophy.  It  has  never  been  proclaimed  on  earth  by  any  reli- 
gion except  that  of  the  Bible.  It  is  one  of  the  grand  original 
discoveries  of  the  gospel  of  Christ,  who  broke  down  forever  the 
old  distinction  between  Jew  and  Gentile,  when  he  said,  "  Go, 
teach  all  nations."  It  has  never  been  a  favorite  doctrine,  either 
with  the  philosophers  on  the  one  hand,  or  the  despotic  oppres- 
sors of  men  on  the  other.  Although  so  clearly  revealed  in  the 
book  of  God,  and  now  so  fully  vindicated  by  the  profoundest 
researches  of  modern  science,  it  has  had  to  fight  its  way  against 
the  continued  assaults  of  scientific  infidelity,  and  of  baptized 
avarice  and  oppression.  Men  wishing  to  grind  their  fellow  men 
under  the  iron  heel  of  bondage,  for  purposes  of  gain  or  ambition, 
have  striven  to  prove  that  it  can  be  done  in  the  august  name 
of  Christianity,  and  have  denied  that  the  doctrine  of  human 
brotherhood  can  be  found  in  all  her  venerable  charter.  Men 
of  science,  on  the  other  hand,  even  down  to  our  own  day,  find- 
ing the  doctrine  there  as  plainly  as  they  find  anything,  have 
admitted  its  existence,  and  then  boldly  joined  issue  on  it,  with 
the  avowed  purpose  of  giving  the  lie  to  the  Bible,  by  proving 
the  doctrine  false. 

But  it  is  altogether  aside  from  our  present  purpose  to  discuss 
its  truth.  We  take  it  as  it  stands  in  the  book — as  one  of  the 
bold,  original,  magnificent  conceptions  of  that  sublime  genius, 
or  that  Divine  intelligence,  which  pervades  all  the  Scriptures. 
Where  shall  we  find  any  view  of  man  so  glorious,  so  august,  so 
cheering,  as  that  which  binds'  all  his  families,  all  his  generations, 
in  one  universal  brotherhood  of  love — one  heart  beating  at  the 


OBJECTS    OF    SUBLIMITY    AND    BEAUTY    IN   THE    BIBLE.    403 

centre  of  liuraanity,  one  life-blood  flowing  through  the  veins  of 
all  nations,  one  immortal  spirit  bursting  forth  from  every  taber- 
nacle of  clay,  fashioned  after  the  image  and  likeness  of  God  ? 
Who  does  not  feel,  that  such  a  view  is  immeasurably  more  sub- 
lime and  ennobling,  than  that  which  infidelity,  and  selfish 
cupidity  have  been  laboring  so  hard  to  establish  in  its  place  ? 

In  this  doctrine  of  human  fraternity  lies  the  last  great  hope 
of  the  world  for  universal  equality  and  liberty.  If  all  men  of 
all  nations  and  races  are  brothers  of  the  same  great  family  of 
God,  as  the  Bible  teaches,  then  every  one  ouglit  to  have  a 
brother's  portion  in  the  inheritance  of  earthly  blessings,  as  well 
as  in  the  patrimony  of  immortality.  And  so,  when  the  Bible 
doctrine  comes  to  be  fully  understood  and  practised — when  men 
come  to  understand  their  true  relations  to  God  and  to  one 
another — when,  under  the  peaceful  influence  of  the  cross,  they 
learn  to  love  each  other  as  children  of  one  Father,  and  brethren 
of  one  family,  they  must  become  equals  in  all  social,  political, 
and  religious  rights — at  least  so  far  as  equality  is  possible  in  a 
world  of  diversity  and  imperfection.  Being  thus  constituted 
brothers  and  equals,  in  virtue  of  their  common  parentage  in  God, 
they  will  all  ultimately  rise  to  the  dignity  of  freemen,  even  as 
they  come  to  see  that  they  have  no  right  to  degrade  each  other, 
and  no  interest  in  trampling  each  other  in  the  dust.  The  Bible 
contemplates  a  period  when  nation  shall  not  rise  against  nation, 
and  man  will  no  more  need  to  vindicate  his  own  liberties  at  the 
sacrifice  of  those  of  his  fellow  man.  That  consummation  will 
be  realized  just  in  proportion  as  this  sublime  doctrine  of  man's 
common  brotherhood  takes  possession  of  the  heart  of  the  world. 
Equality  and  freedom  must  grow  out  of  man's  fraternity  ;  and 
it  is  for  the  Gospel  of  love  to  develop  them,  even  as  it  delivers 
the  world  from  the  thralldom  of  sin.     This  is  the  grand  Scrip- 


404  ORIGINAL   CONCEPTIONS  ;    OE, 

tural  idea  of  universal  emancipation.  If  the  Son  shall  make  you 
free,  ye  shall  be  free  indeed.  This  is  the  only  true  theory, 
method,  and  hope  of  human  liberty  and  equality.  The  battle- 
cry  of  oppressed  humanity,  the  sublime  watch-word  of  all  human 
progress  amongst  the  struggling  nations,  is,  and  ever  must  be, 
this  divinely  established  trio  of  the  word  of  God — Fraternity — 
Equality — Liberty  ;  not  in  the  order  of  infidel  France  and  Ger- 
many— "  Liberty,  Equality,  and  Fraternity,"  madly  building 
human  liberty  on  a  foundation  of  sand  ;  but  in  the  order  of  the 
Bible-reading,  and  God-fearing  apostles  of  English  and  Ameri- 
can revolutions — Fraternity  first,  and  then  Equality,  and  then 
Liberty,  planting  itself  on  the  Rock  of  Ages.  When  the  down- 
trodden nations  of  the  earth  shall  once  learn  that  the  true  inter- 
est of  man  must  be  sought  in  the  name  of  God  and  truth  :  when 
they  shall  come  to  understand  that  they  are  all  free  and  equal 
because  they  are  brothers  ;  and  brothers  because  the  common 
sons  of  God  :  when  they  shall  be  able  to  build  all  their  rights 
and  their  hopes  upon  God,  and  to  defend  them  with  the  high 
and  awful  sanctions  of  the  word  of  God  ;  then  shall  be  realized 
the  grand  Scriptural  conception  of  the  common  brotherhood, 
equality  and  liberty  of  man  ;  then  shall  be  proclaimed  that  uni- 
versal Jubilee  of  freedom  which  the  Bible  has  from  the  begin- 
ning recognized  and  preached  as  the  inherent  and  Divine  birth- 
right of  every  nation  and  tribe  and  kindred  of  Adam's  race  : 
then  shall  be  brought  to  pass  that  glorious  consummation  of 
universal  peace,  order  and  good  will  amongst  men,  which  Chris- 
tianity has  foretold  as  the  result  of  her  own  Divine  principles, 
which  has  been  the  theme  of  the  earnest  longings  and  midnight 
meditations  of  the  master  minds  of  all  i)ast  ages  ;  for  which  the 
martyrs  of  civil  and  religious  liberty  in  every  land  have  poured 
out  their  life-blood  on  the  scaffold  and  on  the  battle-field  ;  for 


OBJECTS    OF    SUBLIMITY    AND    BEAL'TY    IN   THE    BIBLE.    405 

which  the  saints  of  God  have  been  praying  so  long  ;  for  which 
statesmen  have  so  often  planned,  and  patriots  sighed  in  vain  ; 
and  for  which  even  now  thousands  of  the  noblest  men  that 
tread  the  earth  are  suffering  in  the  prisons  of  European  despot- 
ism, or  wandering  in  exile,  their  desolated  homes  appealing  to 
heaven  for  justice,  and  their  enslaved  countries  silently  await- 
ing the  trumpet  call  of  their  resurrection  morning. 

In  a  word,  the  one  grand  inspiring  thought  which  we  seek 
here  to  present,  is,  that  the  Bible  is  the  true  book  of  human 
liberty,  the  only  book  of  hope  for  liberty,  equality,  and  frater- 
nity amongst  men.  Men  and  nations  have  thus  far  been  suc- 
cessful in  securing  the  prize  of  civil  and  religious  freedom,  for 
themselves  and  their  posterity,  just  in  proportion  as  they  have 
stood  by  the  book  of  God  ;  and  as  they  have  departed  from  it, 
they  have  failed.  This  is  the  only  Divine  .charter  on  earth  for 
the  rights  and  liberties  of  man.  This  is  the  only  rock  on  which 
he  can  make  his  stand  against  tyranny,  temporal,  spiritual,  civil 
or  infernal,  with  success.  With  this  book  only  can  he  know 
his  rights — and  knowing,  dare  maintain  them.  And  when  all 
the  world  shall  be  filled  with  the  knowledge  of  this  book,  then 
shall  all  the  world  be  filled  with  moral  beauty  and  glory,  for 
there  shall  be  but  one  vast  family  of  brothers,  equals,  and  free- 
men, walking  in  the  light  of  the  Lord.  Is  there  any  moral 
grandeur  in  thoughts  like  these  ?     'Tis  the  Bible  that  reveals  it. 


Vn. ^THE    DAY    OF    SACRED    REST. 

As  an  illustration  of  our  general  subject — the  moral  beauty 
and  sublimity  of  the  things  revealed  in  the  Scriptures — let  us 
now  take  an  object  somewhat  different  from  any  of  those  yet 


406 


presented.  It  is  the  day  of  sacred  rest,  the  Sabbath  of  God, 
as  it  is  conceived  of,  and  described,  in  the  Bible.  It  has  well 
been  called  the  "  Pearl  of  days" — "Heaven's  antidote  for  the 
curse  of  labor."  Instituted  at  the  creation,  and  enforced  by  the 
high  sanction  of  Divine  example,  incorporated  into  the  memo- 
rabilia of  the  Decalogue,  honored  by  the  special  encomiums  of 
the  prophets,  and  reenjoined  by  the  great  Head  of  the  church 
at  the  new  dispensation,  it  has  come  down  to  us,  with  all  its 
venerable  associations,  and  its  sacred  authority,  as  an  ordinance, 
"  made  for  man  " — an  ordinance  to  be  observed  in  its  season  to 
the  end  of  time.  It  is  unlike  all  other  long-observed  divisions 
of  time.  It  has  no  natural  index,  like  the  day,  the  night,  the 
year,  to  notch  its  periods  as  they  pass.  It  is  the  "  day  which 
the  Lord  hath  made."  And  yet  it  is  an  institution  upon  which 
we  behold  the  inscription,  "  antiquity,  universality,  perpetuity." 
In  order  to  obtain  a  full  perception  of  the  moral  beauty  and 
glory  of  the  Sabbath,  we  must  look  at  it  in  its  intention  and 
design,  as  developed  in  the  Bible  :  for  no  part  of  the  world  has 
ever  yet  fully  realized  the  Scriptural  conception  of  this  day  of 
sacred  rest.  We  must  look  away  from  the  Sabbath  as  it  is 
now  seen,  in  its  partial  observance,  often  shameful  desecration, 
to  the  Sabbath  as  it  ought  to  be,  and  as  it  would  be,  if  univer- 
sally observed  according  to  the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  com- 
mandment. Even  as  it  is,  in  the  best  parts  of  Christendom, 
in  the  rural  parishes  of  England,  in  the  highlands  of  Scotland 
and  in  many  a  quiet  village  of  our  own  country,  there  is  a 
peaceful  glory  around  the  Sabbath,  that  naturally  lifts  the 
thoughts  to  heaven.  But  what  would  it  be,  if  the  observance 
were  universal,  with  no  discordant  element  of  business  or 
worldly  pleasure,  to  mar  the  grand  idea  of  a  world  in  repose, 
worshiping  at  Jehovah's  feet  ? 


OBJECTS    OF    SUBLIMITY   AND   BEAUTY   IN   THE   BIBLE.    407 

The  best  way  to  get  the  Scriptural  conception  of  the  Sab- 
bath fully  before  our  minds,  is  to  suppose  first  a  world  without 
any  Sabbath.  Suppose  there  never  had  been  a  day  of  sacred 
rest,  no  conception  of  it,  no  approximation  to  it  amongst  men. 
Suppose  no  Sabbath  sun  had  ever  poured  its  peaceful,  hallowed 
light  over  the  toiling  millions  of  earth.  Picture  to  yourselves, 
not  a  single  nation,  such  as  France  during  the  Reign  of  Terror, 
but  a  world  laboring  on  forever,  with  no  day  of  repose,  no 
Sabbath  of  worship,  no  respite  from  work  :  work — work — work 
its  only  life-time.  Think  of  men,  women,  and  children,  doomed 
to  toil  on,  from  day  to  day,  the  slaves  of  business,  the  drudges 
of  labor,  the  worshipers  and  the  victims  of  work — unending 
work.  In  the  language  of  John  Allan  Quiuton,  "  Think  of 
labor  thus  going  on,  in  one  monotonous  and  eternal  cycle — ^the 
limbs  forever  on  the  rack,  the  fingers  forever  plying,  the  eye- 
balls forever  straining,  the  brow  for  ever  sweating,  the  feet  for- 
ever plodding,  the  brain  for  ever  throbbing,  the  shoulders  for- 
ever drooping,  the  loins  forever  aching,  and  the  restless  mind  for- 
ever scheming.  Think — as  your  imagination  beholds  the 
unvarying  wheel  of  work,  the  tread-mill  of  labor,  thus  going 
round,  and  round,  and  round,  without  a  change,  without  a  pause, 
from  morn  to  night,  from  moon  to  moon,  and  from  year  to  year 
— think  if  you  can,  of  the  desolations  that  must  follow  this 
absolute  reign  of  labor  over  the  whole  realm  of  time.  Think 
of  the  beauty  it  would  efface  ;  of  the  merry-heartedness  it 
would  extinguish  ;  of  the  giant  strengths  that  it  would  tame  ; 
of  the  resources  of  nature  that  it  would  exhaust  ;  of  the  aspi- 
rations it  would  crush  ;  of  the  sicknesses  that  it  would  breed; 
of  the  projects  it  would  wreck  ;  of  the  groans  that  it  would 
extort,  of  the  lives  that  it  would  immolate,  and  of  the  cheerless 
graves  that  it  would  prematurely  dig  1    See  them,  toiling  and 


408  OEIGINAL    CONCEPTIONS  ;    OR, 

moiling,  sweating  and  fretting,  grinding  and  hewing,  weaving 
and  spinning,  strewing  and  gathering,  sowing  and  reaping, 
razing  and  building,  digging  and  planting,  unlading  and  storing 
striving  and  struggling  ; — in  the  garden  and  in  the  field,  in  the 
granary  and  in  the  barn,  in  the  factory  and  in  the  mill,  in  the 
""varehouse  and  in  the  shop,  on  the  mountain  and  in  the  ditch, 
on  the  road-side  and  in  the  wood,  in  the  city  and  in  the  country, 
on  the  sea  and  on  the  shore,  on  the  earth  and  in  the  earth,  in 
days  of  brightness  and  days  of  gloom,  in  hours  of  sun  and  sea- 
sons of  storm,  in  times  of  trouble  and  times  of  peace,  in  the 
heights  of  day  and  in  the  depths  of  night,  through  the  savage- 
ness  of  winter  and  through  the  gentleness  of  spring,  in  the 
energy  of  youth  and  in  the  impotence  of  age,  when  health  is 
merrily  dancing  in  the  blood,  and  when  disease  is  eating  up  the 
strength,  when  death  is  in  the  lonely  home,  and  when  happy 
life  encircles  the  hearth  : — thus  the  wheel  of  labor  would  go 
round  with  the  earth,  and  the  children  of  industry,  chained  to 
its  surface,  must  follow  its  ruinous  circumvolutions,  till 
exhausted  by  unnatural  efforts,  they  relax  their  hold,  drop  off, 
and  suddenly  disappear  !  Under  the  vassalage  of  such  a  gigan- 
tic oppressor  as  unrestricted  labor,  earth  would  rack  with  the 
sufferings  of  her  offspring,  while  the  all-absorbing  prayer  of  her 
millions  would  be  for  Rest !  rest !  rest  I  or  the  quiet  slumber 
of  the  grave." 

Now,  from  this  fearful  picture  of  a  world  without  a  Sabbath, 
turn  to  contemplate  the  condition  of  man,  when  blest,  not  sim- 
ply with  the  Sabbath  as  it  is,  but  with  that  universal  and  per- 
fect Sabbath  which  the  Scriptures  have  depicted,  and  which  is 
yet  to  reign  on  earth.  Conceive  of  it  as  described  by  Isaiah, 
when  men  "  Shall  call  it  a  delight,  the  holy  of  the  Lord,  hon- 
orable •,  and  shall  honor  him,  not  doing  their  own  ways,  nor 


OBJECTS    OF   SUBLIMITY    AND    BEAUTY    IN^   THE   BIBLE.    409 

finding  their  own  pleasure,  nor  speaking  their  own  words.'' 
Conceive  of  it,  not  as  some  pagan  saturnalia,  or  papal  holiday, 
when  man  is  released  from  toil  only  to  run  riot  with  feasting 
and  frolic  and  debauchery,  but  as  a  season  when  man's  thoughts 
shall  be  lifted  to  the  skies,  to  hold  communion  with  God.  Con- 
ceive of  all  nations  of  the  earth,  resting  from  their  labors,  as 
God  did  when  he  made  the  world.  Conceive  of  the  whole 
animate  creation,  both  man  and  beast,  reposing  in  calm  enjoy- 
ment after  every  six  days'  toil.  Draw  the  picture  of  a  world 
at  rest — a  world  in  devotion — a  world  remembering  the  Sabbath- 
day  to  keep  it  holy.  In  the  eloquent  words  of  Quinton  again, 
"  Go  forth  at  early  morning,  and  climb  the  side  of  an  upland 
peak,  contiguous  to  some  thickly  peopled  city.  Gaze  east- 
ward, southward,  westward  and  northward — through  the  whole 
circuit  travelled  by  the  sun — and  behold  the  delectable  repre- 
sentation of  Sabbath  rest.  Every  sound  breathes  softer  ;  every 
tint  gleams  brighter  :  every  scene  seems  fresher.  Cast  thy 
glance  across  the  country — pass  from  field  to  field,  from  rill  to 
river,  from  alp  to  glen,  from  hill  to  valley,  from  grove  to  grove, 
from  one  cluster  of  human  dwellings  to  another,  and  read  in 
every  softened  feature  of  nature,  the  sweet  tranquiUity  of  Sabbath 
rest  !  Oh,  precious  day  ! — the  workman's  jubilee — the  slave's 
release — the  shield  of  servitude — the  antidote  of  weariness — the 
suspension  of  the  curse  !  How  it  smoothes  the  brow  of  care  I 
How  it  brightens  the  countenance  of  gloom  !  How  it  braces 
the  enervated  limbs  of  labor  !  How  it  revives  the  drooping 
spirit  cf  despair  I  How  it  gives  wings  to  the  clogged  affections 
and  aspirations  to  the  soul  I  How  it  pours  some  drops  of  sweet- 
ness on  the  bitterest  lot,  and  sheds  some  gleams  of  sun- 
shine athwart  the  saddest  heart  I  How  it  lifts  the  groveller 
from  his  low   pursuits,  and  fills  him  with  a  noble  self-respect  I 

18 


410  ORIGINAL    CONCEPTIONS  ;    OK, 

How  it  extinguishes  the  jealousies  and  rivalries  of  wetk-day  oc- 
cupations, and  links  men's  hearts  in  the  bonds  of  brotherhood." 
Such  in  part  is  the  contrast,  between  a  world  without,  and  a 
world  with,  the  day  of  sacred  rest,  as  drawn  by  the  author  of 
the  "  Prize  Essay  on  the  Sabbath  ;"  and  well  may  we  too  say, 
in  the  words  of  his  beautiful  motto  from  Herbert — 

"  Oh,  day  most  calm,  most  bright, 
The  fruit  of  this,  the  next  world's  bud, 
The  indorsement  of  supreme  delight, 
Writ  by  a  Friend,  and  with  his  blood ; 
The  couch  of  time ;  care's  balm  and  bay : 
The  week  were  dark  but  for  thy  light ; 
Thy  torch  doth  show  the  way." 

And  if  such  be  the  true  Scriptural  conception  of  the  Lord's 
day — the  beau-ideal  of  Sabbatical  rest  painted  by  the  pencil 
of  inspiration — where  shall  we  find  in  human  literature  a 
grander,  nobler,  lovelier  thought  ?  But  this  thought,  in  all  its 
length  and  breadth,  the  world  owes  to  the  book  of  God  alone. 


VIII. THE  MILLENNIUM. 

The  next  object  of  contemplation  which  we  select  from  the 
Scriptures,  as  one  calculated  to  excite  emotions  of  sublimity 
and  grandeur  in  the  mind,  is  the  Millennium  or  latter-day  glory 
— the  future  golden  age — the  last  dispensation  of  the  world's 
history,  supposed  to  be  a  thousand  years,  in  which  the  earth 
shall  be  filled  with  the  glory  of  God,  and  all  nations  shall  dwell 
ifiisaiety,  plenty  and  peace.  Indeed  we  take  here  a  twofold 
lobje^tyfeifillustration — embracing  two  distinct  and  glorious  con- 


OBJECTS    OF   SUBLIMITY    AND    BEAUTY   IN   THE   BIBLE.    411 

ceptions,  which  however  we  may  survey  at  one  view — namely 
the  couversion  of  the  world,  and  the  subsequent  reign  of  right- 
eousness  upon  it. 

It  is  amongst  the  clearest,  and  certainly  the  most  blessed 
and  joyful,  of  all  the  revelations  of  the  book  of  God,  that 
there  is  a  time  coming,  we  cannot  tell  how  distant  nor  yet 
bow  near — but  a  time  of  universal  righteousness  and  peace  and 
good  will  on  earth  ;  when  the  Gospel  shall  prevail  from  the 
rising  to  the  setting  sun  ;  when  all  flesh  shall  see  the  salvation 
of  God  and  walk  in  the  light  of  his  countenance  ;  when  there 
shall  be  nothing  to  hurt  or  destroy  in  all  his  holy  mountain  : 
when  the  waste  place  shall  be  a  fruitful  field,  and  every  desert 
shall  rejoice  and  blossom  as  the  rose  :  when  Zion's  walls  shall 
be  salvation,  her  gates  praise,  and  God  her  glory  ;  when  Jew 
and  Gentile  shall  meet  togetlier,  and  bond  and  free  embrace 
each  other  as  brothers  ;  when  the  kingdom  and  the  greatness 
of  the  kingdom  under  the  whole  heaven  shall  be  given  to  the 
saints  of  the  Most  High  ;  when  they  shall  beat  their  swords 
into  plough-shares  and  their  spears  into  pruuing-hooks  ;  nation 
shall  not  lift  up  sword  against  nation,  neither  shall  they  learn 
war  any  more  ;  when  the  wolf  shall  dwell  with  the  lamb,  and 
the  leopard  shall  lie  down  with  the  kid,  and  the  calf,  and 
the  young  lion,  and  the  fatling  together,  and  a  little  child  shall 
lead  them  ;  when  the  earth  shall  be  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the 
Lord  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea  ;  when  that  "  old  serpent, 
the  Devil  and  Satan,"  Vvho  has  deceived  the  nations  so  lono-, 
shall  be  bound  a  thousand  years  and  cast  into  the  bottomless 
pit,  and  this  fair  planet,  no  longer  the  dwelling  place  of  sin, 
shall  roll  on  amid  the  stars,  a  habitation  of  holiness,  a  paradise 
of  glory  and  blessedness,  a  "  new  heaven  and  new  earth 
wherein  dwelletli  righteousness." 


4:12  ORIGINAL    CONCEPTIONS  ;    OR, 

Such  is  the  period  which  we  call  the  Millennium  or  latter* 
day  glory,  without  being  able  to  define  when  or  how  it  will 
begin,  when  or  where  it  shall  end.  It  is  enough  for  us  that  it 
is  to  be  ;  that  its  coming  is  amongst  the  sure  decrees  of  Jeho- 
vah ;  that  it  is  foretold  and  anticipated  throughout  the  entire 
predictions  of  the  book  of  God.  Such  is  the  prospect  of  future 
and  ultimate  glory  which,  from  the  beginning  to  the  present 
hour,  has  cheered  the  hopes  and  fired  the  zeal  of  the  people  of 
God.  Such  is  the  sublime  vision  of  her  destiny,  which  the 
Christian  church,  by  the  eye  of  faith  and  with  the  telescope  of 
Divine  promise,  has  been  able  to  see  in  the  darkest  hour  of  tri- 
bulation, looming  up  grandly  before  her,  like  the  orb  of  day 
through  the  scattered  mists  of  the  morning.  Such  is  the  voice 
O'  prophecy  and  of  hope,  which  she  has  ever  heard,  crying  to 
her  from  the  future  and  from  the  heavens,  saying  :  "  Arise  ! 
shine  !  for  thy  light  is  come,  and  the  glory  of  God  is  risen  upon 
thee."  It  is  the  image  of  a  perfect  day,  without  a  mist,  with- 
out a  cloud,  without  a  storm,  a  noontide  of  glory,  a  picture  of 
universal  liberty,  universal  intelligence,  universal  happiness. 
No  image  was  ever  more  distinctly  before  the  human  mind,  no 
conception  was  ever  more  indelibly  impressed  on  the  heart  of 
the  church,  no  object  ever  made  a  stronger  appeal  to  her  faith, 
her  hope,  her  entbusaism,  than  this  belief,  this  anticipation  of 
the  conversion  of  the  world,  and  the  final  triumph  of  Christi- 
anity. On  the  sure  testimony  of  heaven  we  know,  that  whatever 
disasters  may  betide  her,  whatever  labors  must  be  endured,  or 
dangers  encountered,  or  however  long  the  time  may  be  delayed, 
the  day  of  her  redemption  shall  come,  the  whole  world  shall 
be  converted,  and  Christ  shall  reign  from  sea  to  sea,  from  pole 
to  pole. 

This  is  the  idea  which  the  Bible  gives  us,  of  the  millennial 


OBJECTS    OF    SUBLIMITY    AND    BEAUTY   IN    THE   BIBLE.    4:13 

or  latter-day  glory.  And  who  shall  be  able,  before  the  time, 
adequately  to  measure  the  moral  grandeur  of  a  thought  like 
this  ?  A  world  evangelized,  a  world  emancipated  from  sin,  a 
world  redeemed  to  God  ?  What  vocabulary  of  past  ages, 
what  images  of  human  greatness  shall  furnish  terms  adequate 
to  set  before  us  the  untold  magnificence  of  such  a  period,  or  to 
express  the  full  sublimity  of  such  a  conception  ?  And  com- 
pared with  all  the  other  works  that  men  have  done  beneath  the 
sun — the  victories  of  war,  the  pursuits  of  ambition,  the  achieve- 
ments of  art,  the  building  of  cities,  the  founding  of  empires, 
the  discoveries  of  science,  how  does  the  Missionary  enterprise, 
founded  as  it  is  upon  the  Divine  promise  of  the  final 
success  of  the  Gospel,  catching  enthusiasm  from  the  sub- 
lime conception  of  a  world  redeemed,  and  going  forth  in 
God's  great  name  to  accomplish  the  work — how  does  the  Mis- 
sionary enterprise  rise  up  before  us  in  all  its  world-wide  majesty, 
its  unutterable  God-like  grandeur  !  But  this  conception  from 
first  to  last  is  derived  from  the  Bible. 

If  tlie  enterprise  should  fail  at  last,  or  success  be  deferred  for 
thousands  of  years,  infidelity  itself  must  still  admit,  not  only 
the  existence  of  the  thought,  but  the  heroic  daring  of  the  pur- 
pose, and  the  matchless  moral  sublimity  of  the  effort,  to  con- 
vert and  save  the  world  ;  infidelity  can  never  deny,  whatever  be 
the  issue,  that  the  bare  conception  of  such  a  work  does  infinite 
honor  to. that  sublime  intelligence  which  first  developed  it,  and 
to  that  generous,  noble  impulse,  which  through  all  ages,  has  been 
yearning  for  its  realization.  If  Christianity  should  be  doomed  at 
last  to  die  a  martyr  in  this  infidel  world,  as  so  many  of  her  fol- 
lowers have  done,  and  infidelity  be  left  alone  to  dig  her  grave 
and  write  her  epitaph,  still  the  truth  must  stand  forever  con- 
fessed, that  the  largest,  grandest,  noblest  enterprise  of  man,  was 


414:  ORIGINAL    COXCEPTIONS  ;    OR, 

that  which  Christianitj  undertook  when  she  aimed  to  evange* 
lize  the  world. 

But  no  martyr's  death  shall  be  her  destiny.  No  infidel  foe 
shall  ever  write  her  epitaph.  The  vigor  of  immortal  youth  is 
ever  in  her  footsteps.  The  life-blood  of  an  infinite  energy  is 
coursing  through  all  her  veins,  and  conquest  is  written  with 
God's  own  hand  upon  her  brow.  In  the  words  of  one  of  her 
heroic  sons,  Sylvester  Larned — "  Christianity  is  on  her  march, 
and  nothing  will  stop  it.  She  is  moving  forward  ;  and  who- 
ever opposes  her  progress  will  only  be  crushed  to  pieces.  She 
throws  off  the  puny  efforts  of  Infidelity,  as  the  majestic  lion 
shakes  from  his  mane  the  dew-drops  of  the  morning.  She  asks 
no  armistice  or  compromise  from  her  enemies  ;  if  they  will  fall 
into  the  magnificent  procession  she  is  leading,  they  may  yet  be 
received  :  if  not,  they  must  abide  the  issue.  Methinks  the 
celestial  bands  are  at  this  moment  waiting  to  welcome  her  ap- 
proach to  her  native  skies.  Methinks  the  seventh  angel  has  the 
trumpet  to  his  lips,  and  is  preparing  to  sound  Hallelujah  I — 
for  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  are  become  the  kingdoms  of  our 
Lord  and  His  Christ,  and  he  shall  reign  forever  and  ever.'' 


IX. THE    RESURRECTION    OF    THE    DEAD. 

But  looking  still  further  onward  in  the  course  of -time,  be- 
yond the  millennium  and  beyond  the  tomb,  we  behold  another 
revelation  of  sublimity  and  glory  peculiar  to  the  book  of  God. 
It  is  the  Resurrection  of  the  dead.  Through  the  far  reach- 
ing predictions  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New,  there 
rises  up,  before  the  eye  of  faith,  a  vision  of  more  than  mortal 
grandeur — a  picture  of  beauty,  of  wonder  and  yet  of  awe-in- 


OBJECTS    OF   BCBLIMITY    AND   BEACTT   IN    THE   BIBLE.    415 

spiring  mystery,  such  as  no  earthly  pencil  can  ever  transcribe, 
no  human  imagination  fully  grasp.  It  is  the  vision  of  a  resur- 
rection morning — the  idea  of  a  world  reanimated — the  spectacle 
of  the  buried  generations  of  men  awaking  and  starting  forth 
from  the  long  sleep  of  the  grave — "  this  corruptible  putting  on 
incorruption  and  this  mortal  immortality."  It  is  that  which 
Daniel  beheld  in  his  ancient  night  visions — "  Many  of  them 
that  sleep  in  the  dust  of  the  earth  shall  awake  ;  some  to  ever- 
lasting life,  and  some  to  shame  and  everlasting  contempt.  And 
they  that  be  wise  shall  shine  as  the  brightness  of  the  firmament, 
and  they  that  turn  many  to  righteousness  as  the  stars  for  ever 
and  ever."  It  is  that  of  which  Paul  writes — "  Behold  I  show 
you  a  mystery  ;  we  shall  not  all  sleep,  but  we  shall  all  be 
changed  ;  in  a  moment,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  at  the  last 
trump  :  for  the  trumpet  shall  sound,  and  the  dead  shall  be 
raised  incorruptible,  and  we  shall  be  changed."  It  is  that  of 
which  He,  who  is  the  "  Resurrection  and  the  Life,"  speaks — 
''Marvel  not  at  this,  for  the  hour  is  coming  in  which  all  that 
are  in  their  graves  shall  hear  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  God,  and 
shall  come  forth  ;  they  that  have  done  good  unto  the  resurrec- 
tion of  life,  and  they  that  have  done  evil  unto  the  resurrection 
of  damnation." 

The  doctrine  of  a  universal  resurrection  of  the  dead,  is  one 
of  the  peculiar,  distinctive,  and  fundamental  doctrines  of  the 
Bible.  Though  once  rejected  and  laughed  to  scorn  by  the 
philosophers  of  Greece,  it  is  now  established  on  as  firm  and  broad 
a  basis,  in  the  convictions  of  men,  as  Christianity  itself.  From 
being  derided  at  first  as  a  fable,  it  has  now  become  the  loved 
and  cherished  belief  of  the  whole  civilized  world,  giving 
inspiration  to  all  its  hopes,  diflfusing  glory  over  all  its  litera- 
ture.     The   immortality  of   the  soul,  does  not  stand  upon  a 


416  ORIGINAL  conceptions;  or, 

stronger  basis  of  belief,  than  the  resurrection  of  the  body.  It 
stands  attested,  first,  by  the  sure  promise  of  God,  reiterated 
throughout  the  Scriptures,  and  secondly  by  the  incontrovertible 
historical  fact,  that  Jesus  Christ  arose  from  the  dead,  and  be- 
came the  first  fruits  of  them  that  slept. 

But  it  is  not  so  much  the  proof  of  the  doctrine,  as  it  is  the 
sublimity  and  beauty  of  the  conception,  of  a  general  resurrec- 
tion from  the  dead,  that  we  are  now  concerned  to  notice. 
What  a  compensation  for  all  the  ravages  of  disease,  for  all  the 
inroads  of  suffering  and  decay,  for  all  the  horrors  of  death,  is 
found  in  the  fact,  that  the  human  body  shall  be  raised  immortal 
and  incorruptible — that  the  gathered  trophies  of  the  grave 
shall  be  reconquered  and  brought  back  again — that  death 
shall  be  swallowed  up  in  victory — that  the  last  great  enemy  of 
man  shall  die  !  Where  shall  we  find  words,  in  the  Bible  or  out 
of  it,  to  utter  the  immeasurable  glory  and  grandeur  of  that 
spectacle  which  the  universe  is  yet  to  see,  when  the  archangel's 
trumpet  and  the  voice  of  God  shall  call  the  slumbering  nations 
of  the  dead  from  their  tombs  ?  If  it  would  have  been  sublime 
and  glorious  to  stand  at  the  grave  of  Lazarus — to  hear  the 
summons,  "  Lazarus  !  come  forth,"  and  to  see  a  single  man,  that 
had  been  dead  four  days,  walk  forth  again  in  all  the  fullness  of 
life  :  what  shall  it  be  to  stand  upon  the  earth  at  the  latter  day, 
to  behold  the  countless  generations  of  Adam,  bursting  all  the 
bands  of  death,  rising  into  newness  of  life,  and  putting  on  thosa 
forms  of  immortality,  which  soul  and  body  shall  wear  forever  ? 
What  imagination  shall  paint,  what  poet  or  prophet's  pen  de- 
scribe the  glories,  the  wonders,  the  brightness,  the  beauty,  the 
grandeur  of  that  morning  1  when  on  every  hill  and  in  every 
valley,  from  every  mountain,  rock  and  river,  from  every  isle  and 
ocean,  from  every  desert-waste  and  every  forest  solitude,  and 


OBJECTS    OF    SUBLIMITY    AND    BEAUTY    IN    THE    BIBLE.    417 

every  crowded  city  on  earth,  the  dead  shall  live  again  !  the  good 
to  die  no  more  I  One  day — one  hour  shall  repeople  the  earth 
with  all  her  children,  and  restore  the  ruins  of  thousands  of 
years  I 

*'  See  truth,  love,  and  mercy  in  triumph  descending, 
And  nature  all  glowing  in  Eden's  first  bloom  : 
On  the  cold  cheek  of  death  smiles  and  roses  arc  blending, 
And  beauty  immortal  awakes  from  the  tomb." 

There  is  no  theme  which  inspires  the  sacred  writers  with  a 
higher  enthusiasm,  than  this  doctrine  of  the  resurrection.  And 
well  it  may.  The  question  of  the  soiTowing  patriarch — "  If  a 
man  die,  shall  he  live  again  ?"  is  one  that  comes  home  to  every 
human  heart.  All  that  we  hold  dear  on  earth  is  involved  in 
that  question.  All  that  we  hope  for  hereafter  is  at  stake  upon 
the  answer.  We  stand  by  the  death-bed  of  our  fondest  friends 
— we  bid  them  what  appears  to  be  a  last  farewell — we  follow 
them  to  their  cold  and  silent  resting-place  in  the  grave,  as 
others  will  soon  follow  us.  "  We  call,  but  they  answer  not 
again  !"  Bereaved,  astounded,  stricken  nature  asks,  have  they 
gone  forever — shall  we  see  them  no  more  ?  Has  that  curiously 
and  wonderfully  made  body — "  the  human  form  divine," — perish- 
ed ?  That  brow  of  beauty,  "  the  dome  of  thought  and  palace 
of  the  soul " — that  eye  of  genius,  that  tongue  of  eloquence, 
that  form  radiant  with  celestial  fires — the  hand  that  could 
execute,  the  heart  that  could  beat  in  fondness,  the  intellect  that 
could  grasp  the  laws  of  worlds  and  systems,  the  imagination 
that  could  conceive  every  varying  aspect  of  beauty  and  gran- 
deur, the  spirit  that  so  often  aspired  after  God  and  glory — are 
all  these  forever  buried  in  the  dust?  No  !  it  cannot  be  !  AW 
nature  answers,  No  1     The  word  of  God,  from  the  beginning  to 

IS* 


418    ■  ORIGINAL  conceptions;  or, 

the  end,  answers  No  I  He,  who  is  the  "  Resurrection  and  the 
Life,"  who  gave  his  own  life  for  the  life  of  the  world,  with  a 
sublimity  of  utterance  never  before  heard  at  the  grave,  answers, 
No  !  "  Thy  brother  shall  rise  again."  We  must  die — all  die, 
because  Adam  sinned  I  But  since  Christ  has  died,  and  risen 
from  the  dead,  we  die  only  to  live  again.  Mortality  and  im- 
mortality, alike,  belong  to  man. 

"  An  angel's  arm  can't  snatch  him  from  the  grave, 
Legions  of  angels  can't  confine  him  there." 

And  yet  there  are  men,  aspiring  to  be  called  masters  of  taste 
and  genius,  who  turn  away  from  the  Scriptures,  as  if  no  beauty 
or  grandeur  could  be  found  in  these  Divine  revelations.  But  if 
the  doctrine  of  a  universal  resurrection  of  the  dead  be  not  sub- 
lime— as  sublime  as  it  is  precious — it  would  be  hard  to  tell, 
where,  in  all  the  realms  of  human  thought,  sublimity  holds  her 
dwelling-place.  The  real  masters  of  taste  and  eloquence  have 
not  thought  so  ;  but  have  admired  and  adored,  as  at  the  feet  of 
Jesus,  they  have  drunk  in  this  vast  and  glorious  conception. 
In  high  and  holy  meditation,  the  author  of  the  "  Night 
Thoughts,"  utters  his  most  ecstatic  strains,  when,  in  view  of  the 
resurrection  of  Christ,  he  exclaims — 

"  Hear,  0  ye  nations  !  hear  it,  0  ye  dead  ! 
He  rose  !  He  rose !  He  burst  the  bars  of  death ! 

Shout  Earth  and  Heaven  ! 

This  sum  of  good  to  n-an  :  whose  nature  then 
Took  wing,  and  mounted  with  Him  from  the  tomb  I 
Then,  then  I  rose  :  then  first  humanity 
Triumphant  passed  the  crystal  ports  of  light, 
Stupendous  guest !  and  seized  eternal  youth." 


OBJECTS    OF    BUELIMITY    AND    Er:AUTY    IN    THE    BIBLE.    419 


X. THE    LAST   JUDGMENT. 

Closely  allied,  in  the  Scriptures,  to  the  conception  of  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead,  and  immediately  consequent  upon  it, 
stands  another  revelation  of  awful,  unapproachable  grandeur. 
It  is  the  idea,  now  accepted  by  all  men,  of  a  final  Judgment  of 
quick  and  dead.  "  It  is  appointed  unto  men  once  to  die,  and 
after  this  the  Judgment."  "  Because  he  hath  appointed  a  day, 
in  which  he  will  judge  the  world  in  righteousness,  by  that  man 
whom  he  hath  ordained  ;  whereof  he  hath  given  assurance  unto 
all  men,  in  that  he  hath  raised  him  from  the  dead."  It  is  call- 
ed in  Scripture,  "The  judgment  of  the  great  day."  And  it  is 
not  inappropriate  to  apply  to  it  two  other  Scriptural  titles — 
"  The  great  day  of  God  Almighty,"  "  The  great  day  of  his 
wrath."  For  God  himself,  in  the  person  of  Christ,  is  to  sit  upon 
the  throne  of  Judgment  ;  "  and  before  him  shall  be  gathered  all 
nations."  It  is  the  day  in  which  justice  is  to  be  publicly  exe- 
cuted upon  men  and  angels — the  day  for  which  all  other  days 
were  made,  when  all  the  inequalities  of  time  shall  be  adjusted, 
ail  the  mysteries  of  Providence  cleared  up — the  point  from 
which'  all  the  cycles  of  eternity  shall  take  their  departure.  It 
is  the  day  which  shall  wind  up  the  drama  of  man's  terrestrial 
existence,  exhibit  a  God  in  grandeur,  a  world  on  fire,  and  a 
universe  assembled  to  behold  the  scene — the  day  which  shall 
write  upon  the  archives  of  eternity,  "Time  gone,  the  righteous 
saved,  the  wicked  damned,  and  God's  eternal  government 
approved." 

"  When  shriveling  Hke  a  parched  scroll, 
The  flaming  heavens  together  roll ; 
When  louder  yet  and  yet  more  dread, 
Swells  the  high  trump  that  wakes  the  dead." 


42C  OKIGINAL    CONCEPTIONS  ;    OR, 

Now,  you  may  have  grown  familiar  with  the  most  striking 
illustrations  of  grandeur  in  nature,  in  history,  in  art  ;  you  may 
have  walked  amid  the  splendor  of  courts,  or  gazed  upon  the 
dread  scenery  of  battles,  or  pictured  to  your  imagination  the 
vast  array  of  gathering  millions,  all  impelled  by  one  great  emo- 
tion. But  where  amongst  the  productions  of  art,  or  the  records 
of  history,  or  the  images  of  nature,  will  you  find  any  scene  ade- 
quate to  illustrate  the  awful,  unapproachable  sublimity  of  the 
judgment  day  ? 

Suppose  you  could  have  stood  upon  an  eminence  and  looked 
down  upon  the  armies  of  Xerxes,  as  upon  one  wide  sea  of 
living,  heaving  humanity  ;  and  reflected  as  he  did,  that  in  less 
than  a  century,  all  those  millions  should  be  still  and  silent  in 
the  dust.  Suppose  you  could  have  commanded  a  view  of  Nav- 
arino,  or  of  Trafalgar,  when  the  hottest  vials  of  human  wrath 
were  poured  forth  for  the  mastery  of  the  hour  ;  or  surveyed 
the  scene  at  Waterloo,  where  nations  mingled  in  the  strife,  and 
where  the  fate  of  Europe  trembled  on  the  point  of  the  bayonet. 
How  would  language  fail  to  express  the  overwhelming  emotions 
excited  by  such  scenes !  But  what  are  all  these  to  the 
mighty  gatherings,  the  dread  issues,  and  the  high  emotions,  of 
the  judgment  day  !  Perhaps  you  have  gazed  upon  that  sub- 
lime master-piece  of  art,  West's  picture  of  "  Death  on  the  Pale 
Horse,"  founded  upon  a  single  verse  in  the  book  of  Revelation. 
Did  you  mark  well  that  fearful  impersonation  of  irresistible 
might  and  fury — that  impetuous  steed,  trampling  upon  his 
slaughtered  and  dying  victims,  manhood  in  its  prime  and  woman 
in  her  beauty,  childhood  in  its  innocence  and  decrepid  old  age — 
that  ghastly  rider  with  his  brow  of  thunder,  his  eye  of  fire,  his 
look  of  vengeance,  his  uplifted  hands  scattering  arrows,  fire- 
brands and  death,  his  long  dark  retinue  of  demons,  gorgons 


OBJECTS    OF    SUBLIMITY    AND    BEAUTY    IN    THE    BIBLE.    421 

dire,  and  hydra-headed  monsters,  "  fierce  as  ten  furies,  terrible 
as  hell  ?"  And  did  you  not  stand,  mute  and  spell-bound  before 
the  awful,  mysterious  grandeur  of  such  a  picture  ?  But  what 
is  "  Death  on  the  Pale  Horse,"  could  you  even  face  the  reality, 
compared  with  the  scenes  of  the  last  judgment  ? 

You,  perhaps,  have  read  Macaulay's  magnificent  description 
of  that  august  assemblage  (such  as  no  other  nation  but  England 
could  have  produced),  which  sat  upon  the  trial  of  "Warren 
Hastings — when  all  that  was  dignified  in  high  birth  and  official 
station — all  that  was  profound  in  legal  wisdom,  brilliant  in  wit 
and  beauty,  commanding  in  eloquence,  rich  and  powerful  in  the 
gorgeous  paraphernalia  of  a  titled  nobility — the  statesmen, 
jurists,  orators,  philosophers,  heroes,  high-born  ladies,  and 
nobles  of  the  earth — were  gathered  together  for  the  hearing 
and  the  adjudication  of  the  great  cause  :  when,  before  all  that 
vast,  and  brilliant  auditory,  the  great  orator — the  expounder 
of  English  law,  the  champion  of  English  justice — said  with 
uplifted  hand  and  solemn  voice  :  *'  I  impeach  Warren  Hast- 
ings of  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors.  I  impeach  him  in  the 
name  of  the  House  of  Commons,  whose  trust  he  has  betrayed. 
I  impeach  him  in  the  name  of  the  English  nation,  whose  ancient 
honor  he  has  sullied.  I  impeach  him  in  the  name  of  the  people 
of  India,  whose  rights  he  has  trampled  in  the  dust,  and  whose 
country  he  has  turned  into  a  desert.  Lastly,  in  the  name  of 
human  nature  itself ;  in  the  name  of  both  sexes  ;  in  the  name 
of  every  age  and  of  every  rank,  I  impeach  the  common  enemy 
and  oppressor  of  all." 

Who  can  fail  to  appreciate  the  moral  grandeur  of  a  scene 
like  this  ?  Who  can  ^ead  of  it,  even  now,  without  partaking 
somewhat  of  the  deep  and  powerful  emotions  which  filled  the 
heart  of  ev.ry  actor  and  spectator  on  that  great  trial?     But 


422  ORIGINAL    CONCEPTIONS  ;    OE, 

what  was  that  august  assembly,  with  all  its  pomp  and  power, 
its  absorbing  interest  and  its  mighty  issues,  the  wisdom  of 
Burke,  the  eloquence  of  Sheridan,  the  fate  of  Hastings,  com- 
pared with  that  day  of  final,  irreversible  decision,  in  which  we 
are  all  to  stand  before  the  judgment  seat,  not  as  spectators  but 
as  actors  ;  when,  in  the  presence  of  an  assembled  universe,  in 
the  presence  of  God  the  judge,  the  accusing  angel  shall  lift  up 
bis  hand,  and  in  the  name  of  heaven's  everlasting  law,  impeach 
the  sinner  of  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors  against  the  govern- 
ment of  God  I  when  the  righteous  and  the  wicked  shall  part 
to  meet  no  more  !  when,  from  the  great  tribunal,  shall  go  forth 
the  sentence  to  those  upon  the  right  hand,  "  Come,  ye  blessed 
of  my  Father,  inherit  the  kingdom  prepared  for  you  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world,"  and  to  those  upon  the  left,  "  Depart 
from  me  ye  cursed  into  everlasting  fire,  prepared  for  the  devil 
and  his  angels  I"  when  the  one  shall  go  away  into  everlasting 
punishment,  the  other  into  life  eternal  I 

It  has  ever  seemed  to  us,  that  if  there  is  a  conception  of 
unutterable  sublimity  shadowed  forth  in  the  language  of  mor- 
tal tongues,  it  is  to  be  found  in  St.  John's  vision  of  the  last 
judgment — "  And  I  saw  a  great  white  throne,  and  him  that  sat 
on  it,  from  whose  face  the  earth  and  the  heaven  fled  away  ; 
and  there  was  found  no  place  for  them.  And  I  saw  the  dead 
small  and  great,  stand  before  God  ;  and  the  books  were  opened  ; 
and  another  book  was  opened,  which  is  the  book  of  life  ;  and 
the  dead  were  judged  out  of  those  things  which  were  written  in 
the  books,  according  to  their  works.  And  the  sea  gave  up  the 
dead  which  were  in  it ;  and  death  and  hell  deliverea  op  the 
dead  which  were  in  them  :  and  the}  were  judged,  every  man 
according  to  their  works.  And  death  and  hell  were  cast  into 
the  lake  of  fire.     This  is  the  second  death.     And  whosoever 


OBJECTS    OF    SUBLIMITY    AND    BEAUTY    IN    THE    BIBLE.    4:23 

was  not  found  written  in  the  book  of  life  was  cast  into  the  lake 
of  fire."  Surely  if  there  be  sublimity  any  where,  it  is  in  the  book 
of  God. 

XI. THE    HEAVEXLY    WORLD. 

Let  US  turn  now  to  another  object  of  surpassing  beauty  and 
glory  revealed  in  the  Scriptures.  It  is  the  idea  of  Heaven — 
the  Christian  Paradise — the  Spiritual,  Eternal  world  :  "  the 
House  of  many  mansions,"  "  the  City  that  hath  foundations  whose 
maker  and  builder  is  God,"  the  New  Jerusalem  above,  "  pre- 
pared as  a  bride  adorned  for  her  husband,"  the  high  and  holy 
Mount  Zion,  whose  streets  of  gold,  whose  gates  of  pearl,  whose 
walls  of  precious  stone,  "  had  no  need  of  the  sun,  nor  of  the 
moon,  to  shine  in  it :  for  the  glory  of  God  did  lighten  it,  and 
the  Lamb  is  the  light  thereof." 

It  is  not  needful  that  we  should  stop  to  expatiate  on  the 
moral  beauty  and  sublimity  of  the  Scriptural  conception  of 
heaven.  It  would  be  a  boundless  theme.  There  is  a  glory 
here  too  high  for  mortal  tongues,  too  bright  for  mortal  vision. 
The  very  word  "  Heaven,"  wherever  the  Bible  has  been  trans- 
lated into  the  languages  of  earth,  has  become  the  highest  expres- 
sion of  all  that  is  lovely,  all  that  is  pure,  all  that  is  joyous, 
blessed,  glorious.  When  thought  labors,  and  imagination 
breaks  down,  when  all  terms  of  beauty  are  exhausted,  and  all 
images  of  earthly  grandeur  fail — when  the  eye  cannot  see,  nor 
the  ear  hear,  nor  the  heart  conceive,  and  the  tongue  can  no  fur 
ther  express — we  are  accustomed  to  shadow  forth  all  the  rest 
by  one  word — Heaven  I  The  living  know  no  sweeter  phrase  : 
and  when  the  thoughts  of  the  dying  have  passed  from  all  sub- 
lunary things,   the  last  inspiring  word  that  lingers  on  their 


424:  ORIGINAL   CONCEPTIONS  ;    OR, 

Stammering  tongues,  is  still — Heaven  !  the  Heaven  of  the  Bible  I 
There  is  perhaps  no  point  at  which  the  religion  of  the  Bible 
more  signally  evinces  its  superiority  over  every  thing  else  that 
men  have  called  religion,  than  in  this  sublime,  and  glorious 
revelation  of  the  heavenly  world.  The  highest  conceptions 
which  the  old  Greeks  had  of  Mount  Olympus  or  of  the  Elysian 
Fields,  the  sensual  paradise  of  Mohammed,  the  future  "  hunting- 
grounds  "  of  the  Indian,  the  spheres  and  transmigrations  of 
ancient  and  modern  paganism — how  low,  grovelling,  and  con- 
temptible are  they  all,  compared  with  the  exalted  spiritual  hea- 
ven of  Christianity  1 

"  Every  thing  in  a  nation,"  remarks  Professor  Gausseu, 
**may  be  measured  by  one  standard  ;  the  height  of  their  hea- 
ven. If  their  heaven  is  low,  every  thing  here  on  earth  feels  its 
debasing  influences  :  every  thing  at  once  becomes  more  limited 
and  more  grovelling  ;  the  future  becomes  more  circumscribed  : 
patriotism  is  materialized,  generous  traditions  are  engulfed,  the 
moral  sense  becomes  effeminated,  the  worship  of  self  alone  is 
exalted,  and  all  conservative  principles  depart,  one  after  ano- 
ther." 

Now  it  is  the  peculiar  glory  of  Christianity  to  have  revealed 
the  highest,  holiest  heaven  which  the  world  has  ever  known  or 
the  mind  of  man  conceived.  Every  element  of  moral  beauty 
and  grandeur  clusters  around  the  final  abode  of  the  blessed. 
The  whole  creation  of  God  was  beautiful  and  good,  as  it  came 
from  his  almighty  hand.  The  primeval  paradise,  was  doubtless 
beautiful  and  glorious.  The  earth,  when  decked  in  its  vernal 
bloom,  still  retains  something  of  its  original  beauty  and  glory, 
notwithstanding  all  the  desolations  of  sin  and  death.  But  what 
was  Eden  in  all  its  glory,  what  is  earth  at  its  best  estate,  com- 
pared with  the  dwelling-place  of  God  and  glorified  spirits — the 


OBJECTS    OF    SUBLIMITY    AND    BEAUTY    IN    THE    BIBLE.    425 

Lome  of  all  moral,  spiritual,  Divine  perfection  !  Well  may 
we  call  it  "  the  better  land,"  and  its  children  a  "  happy  band." 
How  many  a  weary  pilgrim  through  life's  great  wilderness  has 
been  cheered  and  comforted  in  the  prospect  of  reaching  that 
better  land  !  How  many  a  poor  tempest-tossed  voyager  on  life's 
great  ocean,  has  girded  himself  with  new  strength  at  the 
thought  of  that  haven  of  immortal  rest !  How  many  voices 
of  the  living  and  the  dead  are  ever  cheering  us  onward  to  that 
"  El  Dorado,"  of  human  hope— that  "  Ultima  Thule,"  of  perfect 
fruition — that  Canaan  of  all  the  promises  !  How  many  a 
mourner  in  Zion  has  caught  a  glimpse  of  that  better  land  I 

"  Look  up  !  there  hope 
To  meet  again  in  that  pure  clime  where  blooms 
The  Tree  of  Life  unfadingly — blest  chrae ! 
Where  evermore  shall  re-st  the  true  and  good 
Beneath  the  shadow  of  the  central  throne. 
How  calmly  rest !  where  every  storm  is  hushed 
To  peace,  and  cloudless  skies  are  beautified 
With  everlasting  day  !  soft  is  the  light 
That  glances  on  their  brows,  and  pure  the  gales 
That  breathe  their  music  there — the  light,  the  breath, 
The  melody  of  Heaven." 

Look  for  a  moment  at  the  elements  of  moral  beauty  and  sub- 
limity, associated  with  the  Scriptural  representation  of  heaven. 
It  is  a  place  of  rest — the  saint's  ev.erlasting  rest  I  And  how 
sweet  is  rest  to  the  heavy-laden  !  "  They  rest  from  their  labors 
and  their  works  do  follow  them."  There  the  wicked  cease  from 
troubling,  and  the  weary  are  evermore  at  rest.  It  is  a  place  of 
holiness — immaculate  holiness.  "  There  shall  in  no  wise  enter 
into  it  any  thing  that  defileth  or  worketh  abomination  or 
makcth  a  lie."     Its  employments  are  all  holy,  its  inhabitants 


426  ORIGINAL    CONCEPTIONS  ;    OE, 

are  all  sinless.  Who  are  those  before  the  throne,  clothed  in 
white  raiment,  having  palms  in  their  hands  ?  "  These  are  they 
that  came  out  of  great  tribulation,  and  have  washed  their  robes, 
and  made  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb."  It  is  a  place 
of  knowledge — endless  growth  in  the  knowledge  of  God,  his 
attributes,  his  works,  his  ways,  and  all  his  creatures.  Here  we 
see  through  a  glass  darkly  ;  but  there  face  to  face.  Here  we 
know  in  part,  and  w^e  understand  in  part,  but  there  we  shall 
know  even  as  we  are  known.  It  is  a  place  of  society — com- 
panionship with  God,  with  angels,  with  just  men  made  perfect. 
"  And  I  beheld,  and  lo  I  a  great  multitude  which  no  man  could 
number,  of  all  nations  and  kindreds  and  peoples  and  tongues 
stood  before  the  throne,  and  before  the  Lamb,  clothed  with 
white  robes  and  palms  in  their  hands."  It  is  a  place  of  joy  and 
fruition  in  the  presence  of  the  Lord.  "  And  I  heard  the  voice 
of  harpers  harping  with  their  harps  ;  and  they  sung,  as  it 
were,  a  new  song  before  the  throne."  "  And  there  shall  be  no 
more  death,  neither  sorrow,  nor  crying,  neither  shall  there  be 
any  more  pain  :  for  the  former  things  are  passed  away." 
"  The  Lamb  which  is  in  the  midst  of  the  throne  shall  feed 
them,  and  shall  lead  them  unto  living  fountains  of  water,  and 
God  shall  wipe  away  all  tears  from  their  eyes."  It  is  a  place 
of  immortal  life — an  endless  existence,  "  an  inheritance  incor- 
ruptible, undefiled,  and  that  fadeth  not  away."  Eternity  is 
stamped  upon  all  the  joys  of  heaven.  And  what  a  thought  of 
grandeur  is — Eternity  1  What  duration  lies  unfolded  beneath 
its  endless  years  ?  Eternity  !  without  a  shore,  without  a  bound 
— without  one  waning  star,  without  one  setting  sun,  without 
one  falling  leaf  !  What  sights  of  wonder  may  be  seen  :  what 
heights  of  grandeur  may  be  scaled  ;  what  deeds  of  glory  may 
be  done  :  what  fields    of  knowledge  may  be  scanned  :  what 


OBJECTS    OF    SUBLIMITY    AND    BEAUTY    IN    THE    BIBLE.    427 

mysteries  of  God  and  nature  solved  :  what  years  of  bliss  enjoy- 
ed, or  nights  of  woe  endured,  during  the  long  life-time  of  eter- 
nity !  Could  you  take  the  wings  of  morning  light  and  travel  to 
the  utmost  verge  of  day — to  the  point  which  no  thought  of 
man  or  flight  of  angel  hath  ever  reached — could  you,  from  that 
point  and  with  that  radius,  walk  slow  paced  and  step  by  step, 
the  outer  circumference  of  tlie  universe,  still  you  would  have 
no  adequate  measure  of  the  long  life-time  of  eternity.  Even 
then,  when  the  weary  circuit  was  done,  and  had  been  repeated 
again  and  again — to  borrow  the  words  of  another — "  the  clock 
of  Eternity  would  not  have  struck  one  !"  It  was  a  sublime 
conception  of  Napoleon,  when  on  the  eve  of  battle  at  the  base 
of  the  Pyramids,  he  reminded  his  soldiers,  that  from  those  lofty 
summits  forty  centuries  looked  down  to  behold  their  actions  I 
But  wliat  are  forty  centuries  with  all  their  deeds  of  glory,  forty 
times  told,  to  the  long  life-time  of  eternity — "  boundless,  end- 
less, and  sublime," — the  ocean  of  existence  ! 

"  Time  writes  no  wrinkle  on  thine  azure  brow, 
Such  as  creation's  dawn  beheld,  thou  rollest  now." 

And  yet  men  in  their  incredulity  and  folly,  have  asked,  "  Can 
there  any  good  thing  come  out  of  Nazareth  ?"  any  thing  noble, 
any  thing  great,  any  thing  worthy  of  the  homage  of  the  wise  ? 
We  have  only  to  ask,  in  reply,  is  there  any  thing  sublime  and 
beautiful  in  heaven — any  thing  precious  in  the  boon  of  immor- 
tal life — anything  grand  in  the  universe  of  God  ?  If  so,  come 
and  see;  it  shall  bo  found  here  also,  in  the  book  of  Gotl.  What 
would  the  world  be,  t%id  what  would  life  be  to  man,  without  the 
hope  of  heaven  ?  What  would  man  himself  be  without  the 
doctrine  of  immortality,  to   compensate  for  the  desolations  of 


428  ORIGINAL  conceptions;  ok, 

death,  and  to  supplement  his  present  narrow  existence  ?  And 
is  death  an  eternal  sleep,  alike  to  the  wicked  and  the  holy  ?  Is 
the  conception  of  heaven  all  a  dream,  intended  to  deceive  us  ? 
Is  there  no  rest  for  the  weary  but  in  the  grave — no  abode  of 
blessedness  and  glory  for  the  good  and  true  ?  Take  away  the 
Bible,  and  who  shall  assure  us  of  a  heaven  ?  Who  shall  tell 
us  of  Elysian  Fields,  or  classic  fables,  as  the  ground  of  our 
future  hopes  ?  Take  away  the  Bible,  and  you  have  taken  away 
the  only  heaven  of  which  we  have  any  certain  knowledge,  the 
only  heaven  that  a  good  man  would  care  to  live,  or  dare  to  die 
for.  Take  away  the  Bible,  and  you  have  robbed  us  of  our  all — 
you  have  left  us  this  feverish  dream  of  life,  you  have  chained 
us  to  the  world  and  sin  and  death — you  have  dug  the  grave  of 
all  our  fondest,  sublimest  hopes — and  sent  us  to  lie  down  in  the 
dust,  saying  to  corruption — "  Thou  art  my  father  j  to  the  worm, 
thou  art  my  mother  and  my  sister." 

"  0  earth  !  thou  beauteous  form  of  emptiness  I 
Can'st  thou  presume  to  satisfy  or  calm 
The  ceaseless  yearnings  of  the  deathless  soul? 
Can'st  thou  presume  to  hold,  in  thy  weak  grasp, 
The  pi'oud  aspirant  to  the  crown  of  life  ? 
And  who  are  those  that  love  thy  dust  so  well, 
That  they  Avould  riot  there  !  there  breathe  their  last ! 
There  stretch  themselves  in  everlasting  sleep! 
They  raise  the  hand  with  impious  scoffs  and  swear- — 
The  land  from  which  they  sprang  is  but  a  dream ! 
A  dream  ! — By  yonder  clouds  that  catch  the  glow 
Of  Paradise — by  yonder  lights  that  flash 
Upon  its  towers — by  yonder  floods  that  dash 
Against  its  walls — by  all  the  signs  above, 
And  by  the  deep,  low  voice  within — 'tis  false  ! 
False  !  shout  the  cherubim  before  the  throne  : 


OBJECTS    OF    SUBLIMITY    AND    BEAUTY    IN    THE    BIBLE.    429 

The  demons  mutter  from  beneath — 'lis  false  ! 
The  ceaseless  thunder  of  the  train  of  worlds 
Proclaims  it  false  ;  and  the  last  lingering  voice 
Of  nature's  dying  music  whispers,  false." 


XII. THE    SCHEME    OF    REDEMPTION. 

Take  yet  another,  and  the  last  illustration  we  shall  offer  ;  it 
is  the  Scheme  of  Redemption,  or  plan  of  salvation,  as  it  stands 
unfolded  in  all  the  Scriptures.  This  manifestly  is  the  great 
essential  theme  of  our  theology,  the  central  truth  of  Christianity, 
around  which  all  others  revolve  as  the  planets  around  the  sun. 
This  brings  us  directly  to  the  cross — to  the  incarnate  Deity  who 
suffered  there — to  the  ample  and  amazing  atonement  for  sin, 
which  was  there  made.  It  is  not  our  purpose  at  present,  how- 
ever, in  speaking  of  the  Redemption  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  to 
discuss  its  theological  bearings,  or  to  expound  its  saving  merits  ; 
but  simply  to  hold  it  up  for  your  contemplation  as  an  object  of 
infinite  beauty  and  grandeur.  It  is  the  one  peculiar  and  exalted 
conception  that  runs  through  every  chapter  of  the  book  of  God, 
and  gives  to  all  its  revelations  the  coucinnity  and  compactness 
of  a  perfect  science.  We  call  it  the  scheme  of  redemption,  or 
the  economy  of  grace,  or  the  plan  of  salvation,  or  the  method 
which  God  has  devised,  and  by  which  he  proposes  to  rescue  the 
guilty  and  lost  soul.  It  is  called  in  Scripture  the  "  Way  of 
Life.''  But,  by  whatever  name  we  designate  it,  it  is  a  perfect 
and  Divine  system — consistent  in  all  its  parts,  complete  in  all  its 
provisions,  and  so  distinctly  drawn,  in  all  its  great  outlines, 
that,  "  the  way-faring  man,  though  a  fool,  need  not  err  therein.'* 
It  was  finished  when  the  Son  of  God  expired  on  the  cross  ;  it 


430    -  ORIGINAL    CONCEPTIONS  ;    OK, 

stood  before  the  world  fully  revealed  when  the  last  angel  of  the 
Apocalypse  closed  the  canon  of  inspiration.  Before  its  sublime 
and  glorious  doctrines,  all  the  great  intellects  that  have  adorned 
the  annals  of  the  church — from  Paul  to  Augustine,  from  Agus- 
tine  to  Calvin,  from  Calvin  to  Chalmers — have  bowed  in  pro- 
found, admiring  homage.  It  is  a  scheme  of  infinite  wisdom 
and  infinite  grace,  alike  worthy  of  God  and  worthy  of  man's 
acceptance.  It  brings  salvation  to  man,  and  a  rich  revenue  of 
glory  to  God.  By  it  mercy  and  truth  are  met  together,  right- 
eousness and  peace  have  kissed  each  other.  Into  its  deep 
mysteries  the  angels  desire  to  look.  And  in  view  of  some  of 
its  great  characteristics,  the  apostle  exclaims — "  0  the  depth  of 
the  riches,  both  of  the  wisdom  and  knowledge  of  God  ;  how 
unsearchable  are  his  jugments  and  his  ways  past  finding  out  1" 

The  atonement  of  Christ,  or  the  redemption  of  the  soul  from 
Bin  and  death  by  the  blood  of  the  cross,  is  represented  in  the 
Scriptures  as  a  great  salvation  and  a  great  mystery,  as  the  glad 
tidings  of  great  joy  to  all  nations,  and  the  glorious  gospel  of  the 
grace  of  God.  The  sacred  writers  speak  of  it  as  the  power  of 
God  and  the  wisdom  of  God  ;  and  when  they  desire  to  glory 
in  nothing  save  the  cross  of  Christ,  they  evidently  feel  that  their 
doctrine  is  as  sublime  and  beautiful,  as  it  is  true  and  precious. 
We  have  only  to  look  upon  its  outlines,  to  see  the  exceeding 
glory  and  beauty  and  moral  grandeur  of  this  great  salvation. 

First,  the  scheme  is  all  of  God. — Originating  in  the  counsels 
of  eternal  wisdom,  flowing  from  the  fullness  of  the  Father's  love, 
it  was  accomplished  by  the  voluntary  obedience  and  sacrifice  of 
the  Son,  and  it  is  applied  to  man  by  the  saving  influences  cf  the 
Holy  Ghost.  It  is  a  Divine  and  perfect  salvation.  Next,  its 
adaptation  to  man,  as  a  remedy,  is  complete  and  glorious.  It 
saves  him  when  there  was  no  arm  to  save  him  ;  when  he  had 


OBJECTS    OF    SUBLIMITY    AST)    BEAUTY    IN    THE    BIBLE.    431 

no  power  or  even  purpose  to  save  himself — saves  hira  from  all 
his  enemies,  and  from  his  own  suicidal  hand.  It  saves  him  in 
his  impotence — saves  him  from  all  his  w(jes — saves  him  notwith- 
standing all  his  guilt.  It  is  offered  to  him  without  money  and 
without  price.  Its  conditions  are  the  lowest  and  the  simplest 
that  could  consist  with  the  glory  of  God,  or  the  well-being  of 
his  moral  creatures.  It  is  a  salvation  all  of  grace,  free,  sove- 
reign, unmerited  grace.  Another  element  of  moral  beauty 
and  grandeur  belonging  to  the  salvation  of  the  cross,  is  seen  in 
the  greatness  of  the  boon  which  it  confers  on  man.  It  trans- 
forms the  child  of  woe,  the  slave  of  sin,  the  rebel  against  God, 
into  an  heir  of  glory.  It  releases  him  from  the  wrath  and  curse 
of  a  violated  law  ;  it  restores  to  him  the  lost  image  of  his 
Maker  ;  it  raises  him  from  the  death  of  sin  ;  and  instead  of  the 
pains  of  hell  which  would  have  been  his  portion  forever,  it  gives 
him  a  title,  clear  and  sure,  to  eternal  life  in  the  Paradise  of 
God.  "  Behold  what  manner  of  love  the  Father  hath  bestowed 
on  us  that  we  should  be  called  the  sons  of  God."  Again,  the 
exceeding  glory  of  this  salvation  by  the  cross  is  exhibited  in 
yet  another  fact — that  it  binds  all  its  subjects  in  willing,  grate- 
ful and  eternal  homage  to  the  person  of  their  Divine  Eedeemer. 
It  thus  secures,  and  that  beyond  the  possibility  of  a  failure, 
that  love  to  God,  and  to  all  that  bear  the  image  of  God,  vrhich 
is  the  fulfilling  of  the  Divine  law,  which,  in  man,  is  the  counter- 
part of  the  Divine  character,  and  which  constitutes  the  harmony 
and  happiness  of  heaven.  And  still  farther,  we  behold  an 
exceeding  beauty  and  glory  in  the  grand  ultimate  design  or 
final  cause  of  this  salvation.  The  gospel  of  Christ  proposes  a 
remedy  for  the  lost — it  seeks  to  save  a  multitude  of  souls  from 
everlasting  death.  That  is  its  object — its  sublime  and  benefi- 
cent purpose,  as  it  relates  to  man.     But  it  has  an  infinitely 


432  ORIGINAL    CONCEPTIONS  ;    OE, 

higher  end  and  aim  in  relation  to  God.  Its  grand,  ulterior  and 
eternal  purpose,  is  to  glorify  God — to  manifest  to  all  the  moral 
intelligent  universe,  by  the  redemption  of  man,  the  wisdom, 
grace  and  power  of  the  infinitely  perfect  God.  It  seeks  to 
save  man  and  make  him  holy,  that  he  may  attain  the  chief  €nd 
of  his  existence,  which  is  "  to  glorify  God  and  to  enjoy  him 
forever. 

Such  are  the  essential  features  of  the  Gospel  :  such  is  the 
sublime  doctrine  of  salvation  by  grace  through  the  death  of  the 
cross.  Is  there  nothing  wonderful,  nothing  beautiful  and  god- 
like in  such  a  theme  ?  Is  there  nothing  attractive  to  you  in 
the  tlieory,  nothing  precious  in  the  story  of  the  cross  ?  Is  there 
no  divinity  that  "  stirs  within,"  which  shall  win  your  admiring 
and  adoring  love  to  this  Divinity  that  shines  so  fully  from  the 
cross  ?  Is  it  nothing  to  you  that  infinite  wisdom,  eternal  love, 
and  almighty  power  have  all  combined  to  perfect  a  remedial 
ystem  for  the  salvation  of  our  ruined  race  ;  and  that  all  these 
jonceutre  in  the  cross  ? 

"  The  world  is  full  of  proof,"  says  Dr.  Spring  in  his  beautiful 
book—"  The  Attraction  of  the  Cross  " — "  The  world  is  full  of 
proof  of  the  intense  interest  with  which  the  giddy  and  thought- 
less have  contemplated  the  cross,  and  the  devout  gloried  in  it. 
No  minister  of  the  Gospel  ever  rehearsed  the  narrative  without 
a  listening  auditory  ;  no  mother  ever  sang  it  over  the  pillow  of 
her  babe  without  tenderness  ;  no  child  ever  read  it  without  a 
throbbing  heart.  No  living  man  ever  perused  it  with  indiffer- 
ence ;  no  dying  man  ever  listened  to  it  without  emotion.  The 
cross  will  be  remembered  when  every  thing  else  is  forgotten. 
It  has  intrinsic  power  ;  and  God  himself  has  invested  it  with 
attractions  peculiarly  its  own.  The  Scriptures  point  to  the 
cross,  and  say, '  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  I'     The  most  emphatic 


OBJECTS    OF    SUBLIMITY    AND    BKACTY    IN   THE    BIBLE.    433 

announcement  they  make  is — '  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  that 
taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world  I'  The  brightest  and  most 
wondrous  vision  of  John,  of  all  he  beheld  on  earth,  when  light- 
ened by  the  glory  of  the  descending  angel,  and  of  all  he  beheld 
in  heaven,  was  that  of  which  he  says — '  I  beheld,  and  lo  !  in 
the  midst  of  the  throne  and  of  the  four  living  creatures,  and  in 
the  midst  of  the  elders,  stood  a  Lamb  as  it  had  been  slain  V 
Nothing  will  interest  you  like  the  cross.  Nothing  can  do  for 
you  what  the  cross  has  done." 

"He  that  stands  beneath  the  cross,"  says  Dr.  Thornwell, 
"  and  understands  the  scene,  dares  not  sin — not  because  there 
is  a  hell  beneath  him,  or  an  angry  God  above  him,  but  because 
holiness  is  felt  to  reign  there — the  ground  on  which  he  treads 
is  sacred — the  glory  of  the  Lord  encircles  him,  and  like  Moses, 
he  must  remove  the  shoes  from  his  feet.  The  cross  is  a  vener- 
able spot  ;  I  love  to  linger  around  it,  not  merely  that  I  may 
read  my  title  to  everlasting  life,  but  that  I  may  study  the  great- 
ness of  God.  I  use  the  term  advisedly.  God  never  appears  to 
be  so  truly  great,  so  intensely  holy,  as  when,  from  the  pure 
energy  of  principle,  he  gives  himself  in  the  person  of  his  Son, 
to  die,  rather  than  that  his  character  should  be  impugned. 
Who  dares  prevaricate  with  moral  distinctions,  and  talk  of 
death  as  a  greater  evil  than  dishonor,  when  God,  the  Mighty 
Maker,  died  rather  than  that  truth  or  justice  should  be  com- 
promised ?  Who,  at  the  foot  of  Calvary,  can  pronounce  sin  to 
be  a  slight  evil  ?  Here  then  lies  the  most  impressive  sanction 
of  Revelation." 

But  let  this  suffice.  We  have  been  endeavoring  to  show 
what  conceptions  of  spiritual  and  immortal  beauty,  what  objects 
of  intellectual  and  moral  grandeur  the  book  of  God  reveals  to 
us     And  surely  our  main  proposition— that  it  does  contain  sr.ch 

19 


4:34 


things  in  their  highest  glory — is  abundantly  sustained.  We 
have  singled  out  for  illustration,  twelve  distinct  examples — the 
Divine  existence,  the  Providence  of  God,  the  personal  character 
of  Christ,  the  doctrine  of  special  Divine  influence,  the  church  of 
God,  tlie  common  brotherhood  of  man,  the  day  of  sacred  rest, 
the  Millennium,  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  the  last  judgment, 
the  heavenly  world,  and  the  scheme  of  redemption.  It  is  mani- 
fest, that  we  might  multiply  such  illustrations  to  almost  any 
extent.  For  it  is  the  prerogative  of  the  word  of  God  to  turn 
every  thing  which  it  touches  into  gold — to  invest  all  other  things 
with  the  glory  of  the  Lord.  All  its  revelations  are  either  inhe- 
rently or  relatively  sublime.  By  taking  hold  upon  the  soul, 
upon  eternity  and  upon  God,  they  at  once  take  hold  upon  all 
the  elements  of  moral  beauty  and  grandeur.  Nothing  can  be 
low  or  insignificant,  which  affects  the  well-being  of  the  universe, 
which  concerns  the  eternal  destiny  of  man,  which  relates  to 
the  interests  of  virtue,  human,  angelic  or  Divine.  All  the 
revelations  of  the  Bible  therefore  are  either  grand  in  themselves, 
or  they  borrow  grandeur  from  the  great  things  with  which  they 
stand  connected.  x\nd  instead  cf  asking  what  there  is  in  the 
Bible  entitled  to  the  attributes  of  greatness,  it  would  be  far 
more  rational  to  ask,  where  else  in  the  literature  of  the  world, 
we  shall  find  any  thing  possessing  sublimity  and  beauty  by  a 
title  like  that  of  the  Bible — a  claim  that  shall  stand  good,^ 
when  this  earth  shall  be  dissolved  and  these  heavens  shall  melt 
with  fervent  heat.  The  grass  withereth,  the  flower  faileth  ; 
But  the  Word  of  the  Lord  abideth  forever  1 


OBJECTS   OF   SUBLIMITY    AND   BEAUTY    IN   THE   BIBLE.    435 


Xin. — RECAPITULATION    AND    CONCLUSION. 

We  have  now  completed  our  task.  We  have  walked  about 
Zion  and  marked  her  bulwarks.  We  have  surveyed  the  glory 
of  the  Outer  Temple.  We  have  endeavored  to  show  that  the 
study  of  the  Scriptures,  as  containing  the  finest  models  of  taste, 
the  true  elements  of  literature  and  science,  and  the  grand 
fundamental  facts  of  religion,  is  essential  to  all  correct  educa- 
tion in  youth,  all  sound  learning  in  manhood.  For  this  purpose, 
we  have  had  occasion  to  take  a  wide  survey  of  the  diversified 
characters  of  the  book  of  God.  We  have  grouped  together, 
for  successive  views,  its  notable  women,  its  illustrious  young 
men,  its  inspired  bards,  its  eloquent  orators,  its  ancient  sages  ; 
we  have  also  gazed  with  rapture  upon  its  scenes  of  moral 
beauty  and  its  themes  of  more  than  earthly  grandeur. 

Well  then  may  we  prize  the  Bible  as  our  book  of  books — the 
charter  of  our  liberties,  the  oracle  of  our  religion,  the  fountain 
head  of  all  our  high  civilization.  The  Bible  indeed  belongs  not 
exclusively  to  any  one  era  or  department  of  literature,  but  to 
all.  Having  pervaded  and  moulded  all  with  which  it  has  come 
in  contact,  it  belongs  alike  to  ancient  and  modern,  to  Classical 
and  Theological  literature.  It  is  in  the  Bible  that  the  long 
stream  of  the  old  Hebrew  literature,  flowing  down  like  a  mighty 
river  from  the  heights  of  Paradise  beyond  the  flood,  sweeping 
across  the  vast  plains  of  the  oriental  world,  and  bearing  on  its 
bosom  the  very  ark  of  primeval  civilization,  meets  another 
noble  stream,  both  deep  and  broad,  coming  from  the  west — the 
stream  of  classical  antiquity,  flowing  from  the  steeps  of  Parnassus, . 
the  cool  groves  of  Arcadia,  and  the  temple-crowned  hills  of 
Italia,  bearing  on  its  enchanted  waters  the  immortal  Argosy  of 


4:S6  OEIGLN'AL    CO^iCEFTLOSS  ;    OK, 

Grecian  and  Boman  genius.  It  is  in  the  Bible  that  these  twc 
great  stzeams  of  oriental  and  clasical  literature  meet  and  blend 
thwr  currents.  And  it  is  from  the  Bible  again,  after  mingling 
and  purifying  their  waters,  that  thev  issne  and  go  forth  to  spread 
life  and  beauty  over  the  whole  domain  of  Christendom.  The 
three  great  languages,  which  contain  all  the  choicest  treasures 
of  antiquity,  are  the  Hebrew,  Greek  and  Latin.  These  three 
tongues  were  reconeiied  at  the  cross.  Two  of  them  were 
mother  tongues  of  the  Bible.  Brought  into  strange  but  har- 
monious union  around  the  head  of  the  dying  Son  of  God,  they 
were  thus  consecrated  to  their  grand  mission,  as  it  were  by  a 
baptism  of  blood  ;  and  from  that  day  to  this,  they  hare  been  the 
classic  repositories  of  all  oar  Christian  leammg.  In  the  Hebrew, 
Greek  and  Latin  of  the  cross,  which  proclaimed  '*  Jesu^  tht  King 
of  tie  Jews'"  to  all  the  world,  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  letters 
was  inaugurated — an  era  from  which  the  word  of  the  Lord 
was  to  date  its  going  forth  from  Jerusalem  into  all  the  lan- 
guages of  the  earth,  and  in  which  it  was  to  hold  undisputed 
supremacy  orer  the  human  mind.  By  these  three  great  chan- 
nels was  an  opening  made  for  the  world,  into  that  deep  mine  of 
inexhaustible  treasures,  out  of  which  have  been  dug  all  the 
richest  jewels  of  truth  and  beauty  that  sparkle  on  the  imperial 
brow  of  modem  civilization.  '*  The  City  of  God,"  says  How- 
son,  "  is  built  at  the  confluence  of  three  civilizations." 

But,  shall  we  make  sure  of  the  mam  thing  in  this  Divine 
Book  ?  Shall  we  enter  the  temple,  and  penetrate  the  vail  into 
the  holiest  of  all  ?  Allured  by  these,  its  lower,  outward  attrac- 
tions, shall  we  press  on  to  behold  and  to  enjoy  the  light  of  its 
inner  spiritual  glory  ?  Shall  we  so  search  as  to  find  the  pearl 
of  great  price,  so  act  as  to  secure  the  good  part  ?  Shall  we 
so  live  by  this  light,  as  to  possess  the  prize  of  immortal  life? 


0E.IECT3    OF   SUBLIMITY    AND    BSAUTY    IN    THE   BTBLE.    437 

Kepeuting  of  sin,  obeying  the  Gospel,  coming  to  God,  as  little 
children,  shall  we  exercise  faith  in  the  Son  of  God,  and  rest 
our  souls  in  calm  unshaken  confidence  upon  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb?  This,  after  all,  is  the  grand  subject-matter  of  the 
Bible — this,  to  each  one  of  us,  is  the  question  of  our  immortality. 
Who  has  not  felt  the  need  of  such  a  Faith  ?  Who  has  not 
longed  to  make  sure  of  such  a  boon  ?  Who,  under  the  deep 
searchings,  and  earnest  cravings  of  our  immortal,  yet  guilty 
nature,  has  not  felt  that  the  gospel  of  the  Son  of  God  alone 
must  make  him  happy,  or  happy  he  shall  never  be  ?  And  who 
from  his  experience  of  life  and  his  certain  prospect  of  death,  will 
not  respond,  as  from  his  heart  of  hearts,  to  those  yearning  con- 
victions of  our  common  nature,  which  have  been  so  beautifully 
expressed  by  that  eminent  philosopher.  Sir  Humphrey  Davy — "  I 
envy  no  quality  of  mind  or  intellect  in  others,  not  genius,  power, 
wit  or  fancy — ^but  if  I  could  choose  what  would  be  most  delight- 
ful, and  I  believe  most  useful  to  me,  I  should  prefer  a  firm  re- 
ligious belief  to  every  other  blessing  :  for  it  makes  life  a  disci- 
pline of  goodness — creates  new  hopes  when  all  earthly  hopes 
vanish,  and  throws  over  the  decay,  the  destruction  of  existence, 
the  most  gorgeous  of  all  lights  ;  awakens  life  in  death,  and 
from  corruption  and  decay  calls  up  beauty  and  divinity  ;  makes 
an  instrument  of  torture  and  of  shame  the  ladder  of  ascent  to 
Paradise  ;  and,  far  above  all  combination  of  earthly  hopes, 
calls  up  the  most  delightful  visions  of  palms  and  amaranths, 
the  gardens  of  the  blessed,  the  security  of  everlasting  joys, 
where  the  sensualist  and  the  skeptic  view  only  gloom,  decay, 
annihilation  and  despair." 

Shall  this  "  firm  religious  faith,"  so  desirable,  so  blessed,  so 
needful  for  us  in  life  and  in  death,  and  to  be  breathed  upon  us 
only  by  the  Spirit  of  God  in  the  diligent  study  of  his  word — 


438  ORIGINAL  concp:ptions  ;  oe, 

shall  this  be  our  portion  ?  Whether  it  will  or  not,  depends 
upon  the  use  we  make  of  that  word.  We  are  all  voyagers 
upon  life's  great  ocean.  Our  sails  are  set  for  the  fair  havei* 
of  immortality.  But  many  treacherous  seas  must  be  passed  : 
many  hidden  rocks  and  dangers  lie  along  our  vessel's  course. 
We  have  but  one  chart  and  compass  which  can  carry  us  safely 
through.  It  is  the  Bible.  If  we  sail  by  it,  our  success  will  be 
certain,  our  recompense  glorious.  If  we  fail,  the  fault  must  be 
our  own — the  loss  what  tongue  can  tell  I 

"  They  might  have  understood,  the  bard  replied: 
They  had  the  Bible.     Hast  thou  ever  heard 
Of  such  a  book  !  its  author  God  himself; 
Its  subject  God  and  man,  salvation,  Ufe, 
And  death  ;  eternal  life,  eternal  death  ! 
Dread  words  !  that  have  no  end,  no  bound. 
Most  wondrous  book !  bright  candle  of  the  Lord! 
Star  of  eternity  !  the  only  star. 
By  which  the  bark  of  man  could  navigate 
The  sea  of  life,  and  gain  the  coast  of  bliss 
Securely — only  star  that  rose  on  time, 
And  on  its  dark  and  troubled  billows,  still, 
As  generation,  drifting  swiftly  by. 
Succeeded  generation,  threw  a  ray 
Of  heaven's  own  light,  and  to  the  hills  of  God, 
The  eternal  hills,  pointed  the  sinner's  eye." 

In  looking  back  over  what  has  been  written  in  these  pages, 
we  cannot  for  a  moment  imagine  that  this  unpretending  volume 
will  be  at  all  suited  to  the  taste  of  the  times.  Few  perhaps  of 
the  great  reading  multitude  will  think  it  worth  while  to  hear 
what  we  have  to  say  upon  a  subject  which  they  suppose  them- 
selves to  have  mastered  long  ago.     'Wl^.en  the  Bible  itself  is 


OBJECTS    OF    SUBLIMITY    AND   BEAUTY    IN   THE   BIBLE.    4:39 

laid  upon  the  shelf  as  an  antiquated  and  useless  record,  fit 
only  to  be  read  at  funerals  or  quoted  occasionally  in  sermons, 
what  chance  has  a  mere  book  about  the  Bible,  to  gain  the  eye 
of  this  fiction-loving  generation  ?  The  world  has  no  lack  of  books 
and  no  lack  of  readers.  But  the  men  and  women  of  Dream- 
land— the  heroes  and  heroines,  big  and  little,  natural  and  un- 
natural, black  and  white,  which  modern  genius  can  make  to 
order  and  turn  off  with  the  regularity  of  a  steam-mill — these 
are  the  popular  divinities  that  rule  the  hour.  Every  book- 
store is  full  of  them.  Every  magazine,  almost  every  newspaper 
greets  its  reader  with  a  new  tale  of  thrilling  interest.  Go  into 
our  steamboats  and  railroad  cars,  our  circulating  libraries  and 
hotel  reading-rooms,  and  you  will  find  the  people  everywhere 
reading  :  reading  as  if  they  were  a  race  of  students  ;  reading 
as  if  they  would  read  their  eyes  out ;  reading  as  if  life  were  not 
half  long  enough  to  do  all  the  reading. 

And  reading  what  ?  Reading  this  mushroom,  yellow  literar 
ture,  these  endless  shilly-shally  novels  and  novelettes,  whose 
productiveness,  no  longer  dependent  on  the  uncertain  inspira- 
tions of  genius,  reveals  an  order  of  talent  that  works  enthrely 
by  steam  power.  Such  is  the  march  of  mind.  And  such  are 
the  books  that  are  read  by  the  million.  These  are  the  things 
that  assume  to  educate  the  young,  and  mould  the  intelligence 
of  the  people  ;  and  do  it  by  the  double  process  of  consuming 
the  time  which  might  be  devoted  to  better  reading,  and  of 
creating  a  taste  which  utterly  unfits  the  mind  for  the  acquisi- 
tion of  solid  and  useful  knowledge. 

For  stuff  like  this,  the  grand  old  book  of  God,  whose  history 
is  notched  in  all  the  centuries  of  the  past,  and  linked  to  all  the 
destinies  of  the  future,  whose  immortal  words  have  awakened 
the  energies  and  expanded  the  intellects  of  million?  of  the 


440  ORIGINAL   CONCEPTIONS  ;    OR, 

mighty  dead  now  in  glory,  is  forgotten  or  contemned  by  the 
aged  and  the  young. 

On  trash  like  this,  the  great  heart,  and  mind,  and  conscience 
of  the  reading  world  must  now  be  fed.  These  dreams  of  ima- 
gination are  offered  as  the  daily  food  of  a  people's  intellectual 
and  moral  life.  These  thousand  and  one  creations  of  the  brain, 
some  moral,  some  immoral,  some  half  and  half  of  each,  but  all 
attractive  in  proportion  to  their  extravagance  or  their  skillful 
white-washing  of  some  hideous  form  of  lust  or  villainy — these  are 
the  books  that  find  readers  everywhere,  and  are  now  shap- 
ing the  intellectual  and  moral'  character  of  the  people. 

And  what  is  the  result  of  all  this  reading  ?  What  is  to  be 
the  end  of  this  popular  education  by  means  of  a  fictitious  litera- 
ture, universally  diffused  through  the  steam  press  ?  Precisely 
that  which  the  Prodigal  Son  arrived  at,  when  having  quitted  the 
fat  things  of  his  father's  house  "  he  began  to  be  in  want,  and 
would  fain  have  filled  his  belly  with  the  husks  which  the  swine 
did  eat."  Precisely  the  same,  save  only  that  our  modern  tale 
devourers  are  doing  for  their  souls  what  the  Prodigal  only 
thought  to  do  for  his  body,  but  was  ashamed  of  himself  and 
went  back  to  his  father's  house. 

By  this  we  do  not  mean  to  pass  sentence  of  condemnation 
upon  all  works  of  imagination,  nor  upon  all  the  writers  of  fic- 
tion. Prose  fiction  as  well  as  Poetry,  holds  an  important  place 
in  literature,  and  may  be  made  a  most  useful  medium  of  instruc- 
tive, entertaining  knowledge.  But  our  censure  at  present  lies 
against  the  inordinate  excess  of  the  thing.  Even  a  good  tiling 
does  harm  when  it  is  pursued  to  the  neglect  or  injury  of  other 
things  equally  good  or  better.  When  it  threatens  to  engulf 
every  other  interest  it  becomes  a  positive  evil.  And  this  is  now 
the  tendency  of  i)Ovel-writing  as  it  regards  the  true  interest  of 


OBJECTS   OF   SUBLIMirr    AND   BEAUTY    IN    THE   BIBLE.    44:1 

our  literature  and  of  our  reading  public.  From  the  excessive 
laudation  of  the  press,  bestowing,  upon  every  thing  that  can 
wield  a  pen,  an  immortality  that  Walter  Scott  himself  might 
have  coveted,  one  would  suppose  that  the  novel  had  well  nigh 
monopolized  the  whole  market  of  modern  genius — demanding, 
as  it  seems,  an  amount  of  brains  which  the  old  Greeks  and 
Romans,  in  their  utmost  flights  of  fancy,  never  conceived  of  as 
a  possible  thing.  "  I  have  often  maintained,"  says  John 
Foster,  "that  fiction  may  be  much  more  instructive  than  real 
history.  I  think  so  still  ;  but  viewing  the  rout  of  novels  as 
they  are,  I  think  they  do  incalculable  mischief.  I  wish  we 
could  collect  all  together,  and  make  one  vast  fire  of  them.  I 
should  exult  to  see  the  smoke  of  them  ascend  like  that  of 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah  ;  the  judgment  would  be  as  just." 

But  there  is  yet  a  reading  public  of  a  different  order. 
There  are  some  that  still  stand  by  the  old  landmarks.  There 
is  a  large  and  respectable  class  who  prefer  fact  to  fiction,  and 
who  will  not  forsake  "  the  waters  of  Shiloah  that  go  softly," 
for  the  wild  and  turbid  streams  of  Dreamland.  To  them  we 
turn.  And  if  any  thing  we  have  written  should  be  the  means 
of  increasing  their  admiration  for  the  book  of  God,  or  of  in- 
creasing their  numbers,  by  leading  the  young  to  become  Bible 
readers,  this  volume  will  have  accomplished  its  end. 


THE     END. 


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